1 

N 

BV  A821  .K57  1914 

King,  Henry  Melville. 

Thinking  God's  thoughts 

after  Him 

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Thinking  God's  Thoughts 
After  Him 


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OF  ^mc 


A  RETIRED  MAN'S  MEDITATIOl 


By 


JUN    8   19] 


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2ilC\0M  %^ 


HENRY  MELVILLE  KING,  D.D. 

PASTOR  EMERITUS  OF  THE  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,   PROVIDENCE,   R.   I. 

Author  of  "Mary's  Alabaster  Box,"  "Our  Gosptls,"  The  Messiah  in 

the  Psalms,"  "Why  We  Believe  the  Bible,"  "Religious 

Liberty,"  "The  Baptism  of  Roger  Williams," 

"John  Mylis,"  "Sir  Henry  Vane,  Jr." 

etc,  etc. 


^■ 


L\oro\x^i  o-j  rsl:<lpo^'S -Vnou6V>-t-. 


BOSTON:  THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

TORONTO:  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1914,  by  Henry  M.  King 


All  Rights  Reserved 


The   Gorham   Press,  Boston,  U.   S.  A. 


PREFACE 

It  is  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  men  to 
think  God's  thoughts  after  Him  that  these  chap- 
ters containing  some  of  "  the  meditations  of  a 
retired  man  "  (to  borrow  a  phrase  from  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  Jr.)  have  been  collected,  and  are  offered 
to  the  public.  God's  thoughts,  when  they  become 
man's  thoughts,  determine  character  and  destiny. 
'*  You  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free,"  said  the  infallible  Teacher  sent 
from  God  for  the  distinct  purpose  of  making 
known  to  men  the  mind  and  will  of  the  Father. 

The  original  plan  in  preparing  this  little  vol- 
ume for  the  press  contemplated  a  short  preface  on 
"  Certainty  of  Faith."  But  that  important  topic 
would  not  allow  Itself  to  be  compressed  within  the 
limits  of  a  narrow  preface,  but  claimed  a  chapter, 
though  brief,  for  itself.  The  discussion  is  still 
altogether  too  brief,  measured  by  the  importance 
of  the  theme.  It  will  serve,  however,  to  suggest 
the  possibility  and  the  necessity  of  having  a  definite 
apprehension  of  that  definite,  saving  "  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints."  May  the  promised 
Spirit  of  Truth  bless  every  effort,  however  hum- 

3 


4  PREFACE 

ble,  put  forth  In  the  interest  of  a  positive  religious 
faith,  and  still  perform  his  gracious  office  of  guid- 
ing inquiring  minds  Into  all  the  truth, 

Henry  M.  King. 
Providence,  R.  I. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     Certainty  of  Faith 9 

II.     The  Bible,  Our  Great  Educational  As- 
set        32 

III.  The   Church   of   Christ  in   the    Nine- 

teenth Century 135 

IV.  Peace  and  Light  on  the  Cross,  an  Inter- 

pretation        210 

V.     Mrs.  Emma  Willard,  the  Pioneer  in  the 

Higher  Education  of  Women     ,      .      .   234 


THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 
AFTER  HIM 


Thinking  God's  Thoughts 

CHAPTER  I 

CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH 

CAN  we  know  the  mind  of  God?  Of  course 
the  finite  mind  cannot  fully  comprehend  the 
Infinite  Mind.  But  it  is  generally  believed  that 
God  has  revealed  Himself  in  the  moral  nature  of 
man,  who  was  created  in  his  image;  in  the  physi- 
cal universe  which,  as  the  Psalmist  affirmed,  de- 
clares his  glory;  in  his  dealings  with  his  intelli- 
gent creatures,  which  have  enabled  men  to  say, 
"There  is  a  Divinity  which  shapes  our  ends"; 
and  above  all  in  the  Revelation  which  we  call  pre- 
eminently and  in  harmony  with  its  own  claims, 
"  the  Word  of  God  ";  and  it  is  believed  that  He 
has  revealed  Himself  sufficiently  to  meet  all  the 
practical  purposes  of  this  life,  and  to  instruct  and 
prepare  men  for  the  life  to  come.  The  great 
Teacher  said,  "  This  is  life  eternal  to  know  Thee 
the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou 
hast   sent."      Man's   highest   ambition   and   chief 

9 


lo     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

glory  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  to  know  the 
mind  of  God,  and  to  think  his  thoughts  after  Him. 
All  other  knowledge  is  unsatisfying  and  unim- 
portant in  comparison  with  this. 

Man's  tendency  is  to  philosophize  about  what 
is  revealed,  and  to  speculate  beyond  what  is  re- 
vealed, and  hence  we  have  changing  and  contra- 
dictory views  of  religious  truth,  and  idle  conjec- 
tures, which  are  born  of  human  ignorance,  and 
have  only  a  human  basis  of  authority.  A  safe 
and  incontrovertible  canon  of  interpretation  is 
this:  "The  obvious  meaning  of  the  Word  of 
God  is  the  Word  of  God,"  as  binding  in  the 
twentieth  century  as  in  the  second.  To  affirm 
that  Christianity  has  not  a  definite  historical 
quantity  is  to  repudiate  it  altogether. 

It  would  seem  that  with  so  many  sources  of 
knowledge  there  should  be  a  satisfying  degree  of 
fullness  and  a  reasonable  degree  of  unanimity. 
The  truth  of  God  does  not  change,  and  is  always 
made  known  as  the  truth  of  God  to  the  willing 
and  obedient  spirit.  "  He  that  willeth  to  do  his 
will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of 
God." 

The  truth  of  God  is  unaffected  by  divergent  In- 
terpretations, or  by  changing  climes  or  centuries. 
Some  people  are  led  astray,  it  is  to  be  feared,  by 
the  specious  plea  that  truth  must  be  expressed  in 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  ii 

terms  of  modern  thought,  which  often  covers  a 
wide  departure  from  or  an  actual  denial  of  the 
truth  of  God.  As  it  is  frequently  used  it  covers 
a  multitude  of  heresies.  Some  theologians  seem 
to  have  adopted  the  famous  saying  of  Heraclitus, 
"  All  things  are  in  a  state  of  flux,  and  nothing 
abides."  The  faith  of  yesterday  is  discarded  and 
outgrown  to-day  by  reason  of  supposed  new  light. 
The  old  and  the  tested  must  give  place  to  the 
ever-changing  modern,  and  the  more  modern  the 
modern  is  the  more  acceptable  it  sometimes  seems 
to  be,  until  a  recent  English  writer,  himself  a  mod- 
ernist, is  constrained  to  declare  that  *'  Modern 
lives  of  Christ  have  become  too  modern."  In 
like  manner  it  may  be  said  that  some  modern  in- 
terpretations of  the  Bible  and  revealed  religion 
are  too  modern.  If  the  modern  thought  of  to- 
day is  to  give  way  to  the  more  modern  thought 
of  to-morrow,  the  time  will  soon  come,  if  it  has 
not  come  already  in  some  quarters,  when  Christ 
will  not  be  able  to  recognize  his  own  Gospel,  and 
the  note  of  finality  and  universality  which  rings 
out  clearly  and  unmistakably  in  the  great  commis- 
sion, will  be  silenced  forever.  Another  English 
writer  declares  that  American  Christianity  is  now 
divided  into  two  schools.  "  The  one  is  ortho- 
dox. .  .  .  The  other  school  seems  to  have  sacri- 
ficed almost  everything  which  makes  Christianity 


12     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

distinct  from  a  temporary  philosophy.  Its  mem- 
bers have  the  bad  habit  of  preaching  eugenics  in 
the  place  of  the  Gospel.  They  appear  to  be 
afraid  of  the  great  Epistles  and  the  nobler  pas- 
sages of  the  Gospels,  and  are  apt  to  speak  in  terms 
which  would  suggest  that  there  was  nothing  dis- 
tinctive in  Christianity  which  can  make  it  an  ab- 
solute and  universal  faith.  They  have  become 
afraid  of  the  historian  and  the  natural  scientist. 
Unless  they  are  careful  they  will  prove  to  have 
sold  the  pass  to  the  enemy  from  an  unmanly  and 
needless  timidity."  Professor  Josiah  Royce  in 
"  The  Problem  of  Christianity  "  frankly  says, 
*'  What  views  or  types  of  views  are,  or  ought  to 
be,  characteristic  of  the  modern  man,  hardly  any 
of  us  will  wholly  agree  in  defining.  And  if  there 
is  any  typical  modern  man,  he  would  seem,  at  first 
sight,  to  be  a  creature  of  a  day.  To-morrow 
some  other  sort  of  modern  man  must  take  his 
place.  And  of  the  modern  man  of  a  future  cen- 
tury we  now  cannot  even  know  the  race,  much 
less,  it  would  seem,  the  religious  creed." 

We  are  hearing  much  in  these  days  about  "  a 
progressive  revelation,"  a  phrase  which  probably 
does  not  always  mean  the  same  thing  on  different 
lips.  No  one  doubts  that  God,  the  God  of  na- 
tions and  of  our  lives,  is  constantly  revealing  Him- 
self in  human  history  and  in  personal  experience 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  13 

to  those  who  are  wise  enough  to  detect  his  pres- 
ence and  his  guiding  purpose.  But  when  the 
technical  term,  Revelation,  is  employed,  as  it  con- 
stantly is,  to  denote  the  plan  of  salvation  unfolded 
in  the  Bible  in  the  prophetic  history  of  God's 
ancient  people  and  in  the  life,  teachings,  death, 
resurrection  and  completed  mission  of  his  only 
begotten  Son,  our  Lord,  it  can  be  called  progres- 
sive only  in  the  sense  of  an  advancing  conquest 
to  itself  of  the  faith  of  men  and  nations,  but  not 
in  the  sense  of  an  increase  or  modification  of  its 
original  content  and  substance.  Christ  com- 
manded that  his  Gospel,  the  Gospel  which  He 
committed  to  his  disciples,  should  be  preached  in 
all  the  world  to  every  creature.  The  apostle 
Paul  expressed  his  astonishment  that  men  should 
for  a  moment  be  tempted  to  surrender  that  Gos- 
pel for  another,  which  was  "  not  another,"  and 
pronounced  an  anathema  upon  those  who  yielded 
to  the  temptation.  Christ's  Gospel  could  not  be 
duplicated  or  outgrown.  For  it  there  was  no 
possible  substitute,  and  never  would  be. 

President  Arthur  T.  Hadley,  speaking  of 
"  some  influences  in  modern  philosophic  thought," 
says  truly  enough,  "  Fashions  in  thinking  have 
changed  nearly  as  fast  as  fashions  in  dress.  Sys- 
tem has  succeeded  system  with  bewildering  fre- 
quency.    The   idol  of  to-day   is   the   antiquarian 


14     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

curiosity  of  to-morrow."  But  when  he  or  others 
imply  that  similar  changes  are  to  be  expected  and 
are  actually  taking  place,  not  only  in  the  fashion 
of  religious  thinking,  but  in  the  substance  of  re- 
vealed truth,  so  that  they  constitute  a  progressive 
revelation,  the  implications  are  utterly  without 
warrant.  President  Hadley  says,  "  The  poet  of 
to-day,  like  the  Hebrew  poets  of  old,  is  essentially 
a  prophet,  the  bearer  of  a  progressive  revelation; 
one  of  a  historical  chain  of  seers,  feeling  after 
God,  if  haply  they  may  find  Him,  and  each  in  his 
own  way  bringing  men  a  little  nearer  to  the 
truth."  There  seems  to  be  ample  evidence  that 
the  inspired  Psalmist  not  only  felt  after  God,  but 
that  he  actually  found  Him,  and  that  his  inspira- 
tion was  of  a  unique  kind,  altogether  different 
from  that  of  Kipling  and  Walt  Whitman,  more 
authoritative  and  commanding  than  theirs,  a  bet- 
ter and  truer  and  more  trustworthy  revealer  of 
God  and  duty  and  the  spiritual  nature  of  man, 
and  not  only  not  surpassed  by,  but  not  to  be 
classed  with,  the  progressive  inspiration  of  the 
latest  modern  poets. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  continued  progress  in 
the  fashion  and  substance  of  poetic  religious  think- 
ing. President  Hadley  makes  the  following  com- 
parison. "  No  longer  do  we  content  ourselves 
with  saying,  as  Tennyson  did. 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  15 

"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how,  s 

Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  thine." 

We  deem  it  a  truer,  as  well  as  a  nobler  conception 
of  life,  to  say  with  the  more  modern  poet, 

'■  East  and  west  and  north,  wherever  the  battle  grew, 
Forth  to  a  feast  we  fared,  the  work  of  the  will  to  do. 
Pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  by  night  a  pillar  of  fire, 
Sons  of  the  will,  we  fought  the  fight  of  the  will,  our  sire." 

We  are  prompted  to  ask,  is  it  true  that  this  is 
"  a  truer  and  nobler  conception  of  life,"  that  the 
enthronement  of  the  human  will  is  indicative  of 
genuine  progress?  Is  not  the  submission  of  the 
human  will  to  the  divine  will,  and  its  harmoniza- 
tion with  the  revealed  will  of  God,  the  method 
and  the  secret  of  the  highest  manhood?  Christ 
disclosed  the  supreme  motive  and  Inspiration  of 
his  perfect  life,  when  He  declared,  "  I  came  not 
to  do  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that 
sent  me."  It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  "  pro- 
gressive revelation  "  so  called,  as  manifested  in 
recent  poetry,  carries  us  not  only  beyond  the 
teaching  of  Tennyson  and  David,  but  even  beyond 
the  wisdom  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ.  What  the  next  generation  of 
poets,  "  the  bearers  of  a  progressive  revelation," 
will  attain  unto  we  can  scarcely  imagine.  We 
must  modestly  confess  with  Professor  Royce,  "  we 


1 6      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

now  cannot  even  know  the  race,  much  less  the  re- 
ligious creed." 

But  in  all  seriousness,  the  truth  of  God,  re- 
vealed In  his  Word,  If  it  Is  the  truth  of  God, 
should  control  and  determine  modern  thought, 
and  not  be  controlled  and  modified  by  it.  New 
thought  is  not  always  or  necessarily  true  thought. 
A  change  of  view  is  often  mistaken  for  growth 
and  progress.  That  there  is  a  legitimate  growth 
and  progress,  the  Scriptures  plainly  avow.  But 
"  growth  In  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  "  cannot  be  under- 
stood as  meaning  the  rejection  of  revealed  truth 
or  a  modification  of  It,  but  evidently  a  deeper  ap- 
prehension and  a  richer  experience  of  it,  not  a 
growth  out  of,  but  a  growth  in  and  into,  that  Is 
the  normal  and  expected  development  of  the  be- 
liever In  Christ  by  the  use  of  the  means  which 
He  has  provided  from  the  beginning,  for  the  use 
of  the  earliest  disciples  and  also  of  the  latest. 
In  his  able  volume,  "  The  Christian  View  of  God 
and  the  World"  (p.  25),  Dr.  James  Orr  says, 
"  Bit  by  bit,  as  the  ages  go  on,  we  see  more  clearly 
the  essential  lineaments  of  the  truth  as  It  Is  in 
Jesus;  we  learn  to  disengage  the  genuine  truths 
of  Christ's  Gospel  from  human  additions  and  cor- 
ruptions; we  apprehend  their  bearings  and  rela- 
tions with  one  another,  and  with  new  truths,  more 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  17 

distinctly;  we  see  them  in  new  points  of  view,  de- 
velop and  apply  them  in  new  ways.  All  this  is 
true,  and  it  is  needful  to  remember  it,  lest  to 
temporary  points  of  view,  and  human  theories 
and  formulations,  we  attribute  an  authority  and 
completeness  which  In  no  way  belong  to  them. 
But  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  from  this  that, 
therefore,  everything  in  Christianity  Is  fluent, — 
that  it  has  no  fixed  starting-points,  no  definite 
basal  lines,  no  sure  and  moveless  foundations, 
no  grand  determinative  positions  which  control 
and  govern  all  thought  within  distinctly  Christian 
limits, —  still  less  that,  in  the  course  of  its  long 
history,  theology  has  achieved  nothing,  or  has 
reached  no  results  which  can  fairly  be  regarded 
as  settled."  The  strangest  delusion  of  our  times 
Is  the  exaltation  of  the  fickle  and  illusive  Zeitgeist 
to  the  position  of  supreme  arbiter  In  the  realm  of 
revealed  truth.  Anyone  familiar  with  the  prog- 
ress of  religious  discussion  through  the  Christian 
centuries  knows  that  the  so-called  modern  thought 
is  not  so  modern,  for  the  most  part,  after  all. 
Every  truth  of  revelation  has  been  called  in  ques- 
tion again  and  again  in  the  long  past  by  the  sup- 
posed spirit  of  the  time,  and  over  against  It  has 
been  arrayed  the  "  new  thought  "  which  has  had 
its  little  day  and  won  a  limited  following.  Dis- 
carded error  ever  and  anon  Is  revived,  and  poses 


1 8      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS     . 

as  newly  discovered  truth.  One  of  the  best  pre- 
ventives against  erroneous  views  of  religious 
truth,  is  familiarity  with  church  history. 

In  a  volume  which  has  been  recently  published, 
entitled  "  Foundations  of  Christian  Belief  in 
Terms  of  Modern  Thought,"  and  containing  es- 
says by  seven  Oxford  men,  the  foundations  have 
been  so  effectually  undermined  that  the  reader  is 
compelled  to  ask,  "  If  the  foundations  be  de- 
stroyed, what  shall  the  righteous  do?  "  One  of 
the  seven  essayists,  having  repudiated  the  au- 
thority of  the  Scriptures  as  well  as  of  the  Church, 
declares,  "  Forms  and  habits  of  thought  change 
from  age  to  age,  and  thus  in  a  limited  sense  new 
theologies  are  required."  He  is  constrained  to 
say,  however,  "  But  unless  we  are  to  suppose  the 
Christian  thinkers  of  the  past  to  have  done  their 
work  wholly  amiss,  we  ought  not  to  expect  to  find 
the  new  theologies  turning  out  to  be  radically  at 
variance  with  the  old.  Human  nature,  after  all, 
varies  but  little  from  age  to  age,  and  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever."  He 
then  strangely  adds,  "  He  who  would  teach  a  new 
truth  or  reject  an  old,  .  .  .  must  face  the  prima 
facie  likelihood  that  his  own  prophecy  may  turn 
out  false."  It  would  be  a  thought  distressing 
beyond  expression  that  the  ultimate  truth,  the 
saving  truth  of  God,  the  wisdom  that  is  able  to 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  19 

make  wise  unto  salvation  and  eternal  life,  has 
not  been  apprehended  by  the  fathers,  and  is  not 
at  the  present  time  positively  attainable,  and  that 
we  are  consigned  to  the  deplorable  condition  of 
those  who  are  "  ever  learning  and  never  able  to 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth." 

The  essential  truths  of  Christianity  are  facts, 
not  fancies  or  theories.  The  fundamentals 
though  often  assailed,  are  among  the  things  which 
"  cannot  be  shaken."  Men  may  differ  as  to  non- 
essentials, but  be  solid  as  to  the  fundamentals. 
The  mythical  theory  of  interpretation  has  received 
little  favor  at  the  judgment-bar  of  enlightened 
human  reason.  There  is  a  wonderful  harmony 
and  consistency  between  the  character  and  the 
words  and  the  deeds  of  Christ,  Accept  the  fact 
of  his  supernatural  origin  and  nature,  and  all  else 
is  supernaturally  natural;  it  is  just  what  would  be 
expected,  and  occasions  no  surprise.  The  person 
of  Christ  stands  out  in  clear  outline  like  the  sum- 
mit of  some  lofty  mountain  against  a  cloudless 
sky,  not  cold  and  snow-capped,  but  warm,  glow- 
ing and  glorified  in  the  light  of  the  setting  sun; 
rather  He  is  like  the  sun  itself,  shedding  his  light 
upon  the  loftiest  summits  of  human  thought  and 
into  the  deepest  valleys  of  human  experience.  He 
is  the  great  outstanding  miracle  of  Christianity. 
He  still  lives  in  the  lives  and  the  institutions  of 


20     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

men  and  nations.  He  was  taken  up  out  of  the 
sight  of  his  followers,  but  his  influence  yet  sur- 
vives, increasing  from  century  to  century.  Every 
new  generation  in  the  progress  of  the  Christian 
centuries  is  adding  its  additional  weight  to  the  in- 
creasing volume  of  Christian  evidences.  The 
highest  civilization  shows  abundant  fruits  of 
Christ's  presence  and  influence  in  the  world.  As 
another  has  said,  "  Christ  has  changed  the  map 
of  the  world."  As  you  cannot  classify  Him, 
neither  can  you  annihilate  Him.  The  doubter 
and  denier,  not  the  believer,  is  compelled  to  at- 
tempt the  task,  of  justifying  himself  in  the  eyes 
of  men.  Dr.  Jesse  B.  Thomas  has  said,  "  If 
Christians  believe  the  Bible  superhuman,  and  ac- 
cept the  revelation  it  makes  of  things  beyond  proof 
on  its  testimony,  they  show  themselves  neither 
unscientific  nor  unphilosophic."  "  Probability  is 
the  guide  of  life,"  as  Bishop  Butler  long  ago 
wisely  said.  Christianity,  at  first  believed  on  rea- 
sonable evidence  to  be  of  divine  authority,  offers 
to  demonstrate  that  authority  in  personal  experi- 
ence to  him  who  will  "  do  the  will  of  God."  Its 
eternal  challenge  is  "  come  and  see."  Probabil- 
ity may  be  so  convincing,  when  acted  upon,  as 
to  become  absolute  certainty.  If  Christ  and 
Christianity  do  not  furnish  a  basis  for  certainty 
of  faith,  there  is  nothing  trustworthy  in  human 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  21 

knowledge,  history  or  experience,  the  history  of 
men  and  of  nations  is  nothing  but  a  dream,  and 
the  world  itself  a  great  unreality. 

There  may  be  honest  doubt  in  a  mind  willing 
to  be  convinced  and  honestly  seeking  after  truth, 
but  not  yet  wholly  persuaded  of  its  validity.  Such 
a  mind  is  never  kept  waiting  long.  Christ  will 
come  to  it  as  to  Thomas,  and  lead  it  from  a  state 
of  painful  uncertainty  to  a  full  confession  and  an 
assured  peace.  But  it  is  easy  for  a  man  to  de- 
ceive himself.  He  may  think  he  is  simply  in 
doubt  and  in  a  state  of  uncertainty,  when  he  is 
already  rooted  and  grounded  in  error.  "  The 
heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things."  A  Scotch- 
man is  reported  to  have  said,  "  he  was  willing  to 
be  convinced,  but  he  should  like  to  see  the  man 
who  could  convince  him."  A  man's  so-called 
doubts  may  be  little  less  than  bald  and  obstinate 
denials.  Dr.  Van  Dyke  speaks  of  men  "  whose 
doubts  were  more  dogmatic  than  dogmas."  Prof. 
Shailer  Mathews  says,  "  There  is  no  dogmatism 
so  intolerant  as  that  of  unbelief."  To  deny  a  truth 
is  to  affirm  its  opposite.  A  creed  of  negations, 
if  it  was  possible,  would  be  as  useless  as  it  would 
be  morally  indefensible.  Faith,  and  faith  alone, 
gives  strength  of  character  and  of  purpose. 

The  will  to  believe  is  a  sacred  right,  and  is  as 
indicative  of  intellectual   freedom  as  the  will  to 


22      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

deny.  In  revealed  religion,  as  well  as  in  accepted 
science  and  accredited  history,  there  are  certain 
well  established  and  unalterable  facts,  which  con- 
stitute a  creed.  To  hold  such  a  creed  is  no  sac- 
rifice or  infringement  of  personal  liberty  or  in- 
tellectual freedom.  Liberty  is  not  lawlessness 
and  unrestrained  license.  True  freedom  is  not 
freedom  to  do  wrong  or  to  believe  a  falsehood. 
Civil  liberty  is  liberty  regulated  by  law.  Intel- 
lectual liberty  is  liberty  regulated  by  truth.  If 
revealed  truth,  clearly  enunciated  and  easily  com- 
prehended, does  not  hold  men,  their  freedom  is 
not  the  freedom  that  truth  imparts.  Openness 
of  mind  does  not  imply  emptiness  of  mind,  or  a 
mind  that  contains  no  ascertained  beliefs,  and  no 
deposit  of  sacred  and  verifiable  truth.  Unset- 
tledness  of  conviction  is  no  evidence  of  superior 
intellectuality.  Great  thinkers  have  been  great 
believers  from  the  days  of  Paul  and  Augustine  to 
Jonathan  Edwards,  and  from  Jonathan  Edwards 
until  now,  who  have  believed  that  God,  in  his  in- 
finite wisdom  and  grace,  has  given  to  the  world 
a  permanent  and  authoritative  standard  of  faith, 
and  have  been  unaffected  by  the  ever  changing, 
anti-evangelical  Zeitgeist,  which  has  been  much 
more  formidable  and  influential  in  other  days  than 
it  is  at  the  present  time.  Doubt  is  now,  as  Dr. 
Jesse  B.  Thomas  has  said,  one  manifestation  of 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  23 

"  the  universal  restlessness  of  our  time  which  pro- 
tests against  the  intrusion  of  authority  in  any 
sphere.  In  politics,  in  industrial  life,  in  social 
ethics,  in  domestic  relations,  in  fashion  of  dress,  in 
amusement,  in  journalism,  in  literature,  in  personal 
behavior,  there  is  a  defiant  and  almost  deafening 
outcry  against  the  tyranny  of  '  tradition,'  of  con- 
ventionality, of  custom,  o'f  fixity  in  law  or  institu- 
tion. Every  existing  institution  becomes  the  sub- 
ject of  criticism  and  of  proposed  readjustment  to 
fit  the  needs  of  the  Zeitgeist.  It  might  well  be 
expected,  then,  that  a  new  fashion  in  religion 
would  be  also  proposed."  It  is  claiming  too  much 
to  assert  that  all  present  theological  dissent  is  the 
result  of  accurate  scholarship  or  of  unusual  mental 
acumen  and  a  careful  reweighing  of  the  grounds 
of  religious  belief.  Many  Biblical  scholars  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  of  recognized  standing, 
find  the  legitimate  scholarship  of  the  present  time 
strongly  confirmatory  of  faith  in  the  Bible  as  the 
Word  of  God.  Fresh  attacks  always  call  forth 
fresh  and  stronger  defenses.  To  possess  no  fixed, 
settled  convictions,  instead  of  being  commendable 
and  matter  of  boasting,  may  be  proof  of  culpable 
neglect  or  intellectual  impotence.  Certainty  of 
belief  produces  the  truest  spiritual  liberty  as  well 
as   abiding  peace   of  mind.     The   possession   of 


24     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

truth  is  infinitely  better  than  the  fruitless  and  end- 
less search  after  truth. 

Moreover,  instead  of  vainly  exploring  the  un- 
known and  the  unknowable,  and  indulging  in  un- 
verifiable  and  useless  speculations,  men  should 
rejoice  that  so  much  has  been  made  known,  and 
hold  fast  to  the  truth  which  has  been  plainly  re- 
vealed. An  aged  minister  once  said  to  my  youth- 
ful mind,  perplexed  by  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
death,  of  God  and  the  future,  as  we  came  away 
from  a  funeral-service  in  which  we  both  had  par- 
ticipated, "  Let  us  not  be  troubled  about  the  un- 
known, which  a  wise  God  has  not  seen  fit  to  re- 
veal; let  us  rather  thank  God  that  we  know  so 
much." 

Christ's  mission  was  not  a  failure.  He  said, 
"  I  speak  the  things  which  I  have  seen  with  my 
Father,"  and  declared  Himself  to  be  "  the  way 
and  the  truth  and  the  life."  He  was  "  God  man- 
ifest in  the  flesh."  He  conditioned  discipleship, 
spiritual  freedom,  salvation,  eternal  life  upon  the 
knowledge  of  his  Word  and  continuance  therein. 
He  is  still  "  the  light  that  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world."  His  light  can  never  be 
dimmed  or  superseded.  All  human  lights  pale 
before  it.  He  is  the  central  sun  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  heavens.  To  be  his  disciples  and  learn 
of  Him  is  to  walk  in  the  light,  which  can  never 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  25 

lose  its  Illuminating  and  life-giving  power,  and  is 
destined  to  dispel  the  darkness  of  doubt  and  ig- 
norance and  sin,  which  now  beclouds  human 
minds.  Certainty  of  faith  can  be  found  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and  is  ever  authenticating  itself  in  Chris- 
tian experience. 

The  fathers  had  great  strength  of  faith  and 
clearness  of  faith,  because  they  had  deep  and 
thorough  experiences.  It  is  not  only  true,  as 
Goethe  says,  that  "  What  you  have  inherited  from 
your  fathers,  you  must  earn  for  yourself  before 
you  can  call  it  yours,"  but  it  Is  also  true  that  what- 
ever of  religious  faith  you  have  Inherited  from 
your  fathers  you  must  experience  for  yourself  be- 
fore you  can  truly  call  It  yours.  Experience  not 
only  holds  the  title  deed  of  faith,  but  it  is  Its  test 
and  Its  certain  verification,  "  Now  we  believe," 
said  the  Samaritan  villagers,  "  not  because  of  thy 
saying,  for  we  have  heard  Him  ourselves,  and 
know  that  this  is  Indeed  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of 
the  world." 

Robertson  Smith  makes  this  confession,  "  If  I 
am  asked  why  I  receive  Scripture  as  the  Word  of 
God  and  as  the  only  perfect  rule  of  faith  and  life, 
I  answer  with  all  the  Fathers  of  the  Protestant 
Church,  because  the  Bible  Is  the  only  record  of 
the  redeeming  love  of  God,  because  in  the  Bible 
alone  I  find  God  drawing  near  to  man  in  Christ 


26     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Jesus,  and  declaring  to  us  in  Him  his  will  for  our 
salvation,  and  this  record  I  know  to  be  true  by 
the  witness  of  his  Spirit  in  my  heart,  whereby  I 
am  assured  that  none  other  than  God  Himself  is 
able  to  speak  such  words  to  my  soul." 

An  experimental  religion  is  the  only  religion 
that  has  value,  and  the  only  religion  that  gives 
promise  of  permanence.  No  man  is  qualified  to 
judge  Christian  truth,  or  to  determine  its  reality 
and  genuineness,  unless  he  has  seen  Its  fruits  and 
felt  its  power  In  his  own  soul.  His  spiritual  sen- 
sibilities must  be  first  quickened  and  his  spiritual 
eye  opened.  "  These  things  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned." A  faith  which  is  deeply  rooted  In  per- 
sonal experience  Is  not  likely  to  weaken  or  change 
or  perish.  Modern  doubt  and  infidelity  are  often 
born  of  a  lack  of  experience  or  of  a  religion  of 
form  and  ceremony,  which  lays  the  supreme  em- 
phasis upon  some  outward  act  or  rite,  and  ignores 
the  Inward  life.  What  is  needed  in  our  time  and 
In  all  times  to  preserve  our  Christianity  as  a  di- 
vine and  authoritative  religion  for  the  world  is  not 
a  new  interpretation  or  a  new  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion or  a  progressive  revelation  (if  such  a  thing 
were  possible  and  within  the  power  of  man  to 
accomplish),  but  a  deeper  and  richer  experience 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  men  who  believe  be- 
cause they  have  tasted  and  tested,  and  have  felt 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  27 

their  souls  responding  penitently,  humbly,  affec- 
tionately and  approvingly  to  the  great  unchanging 
verities  of  revealed  truth.  We  are  not  straitened 
in  God  or  in  his  truth,  which  is  able  to  save  to 
the  utmost  in  this  and  every  generation,  but  we 
are  straitened  in  ourselves. 

The  deeper  experience  will  give  certainty  to 
faith  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  pew.  Ministers  will 
then  be  indeed  ambassadors  for  Christ,  bearing 
a  certain,  distinct  message.  They  will  "  preach 
the  Word,"  not  human  opinion  which  changes 
from  year  to  year,  and  possibly  from  week  to 
week,  but  God's  truth,  divine,  authoritative,  un- 
alterable, and  divinely  adapted  to  the  spiritual 
needs  of  men.  Whether  the  hearers  believe  what 
the  preacher  preaches  or  not,  they  must  believe 
that  he  believes  it,  and  that  he  believes  it  to  be 
God's  message  entrusted  to  him.  Otherwise  the 
influence  of  his  preaching  will  be  nil,  and  worse 
than  nil.  A  minister  without  definite  faith,  born 
of  a  vital  Christian  experience  and  certified  as  to 
its  divine  character,  would  be  out  of  place  in  a 
Christian  pulpit.  He  has  mistaken  his  calling. 
President  Henry  Churchill  King  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  say,  "  The  moral  or  spiritual  prophet,  who 
speaks,  as  out  of  his  own  insight,  what  he  has 
only  caught  up  from  another,  is  himself  a  fraud, 
and  cannot  help  another  into  reality  of  life." 


28      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

A  minister  of  Christ  cannot  know  everything. 
There  are  vast  reahns  of  knowledge  beyond  his 
ken.  But  there  are  some  things  which  he  must 
know,  and  know  for  a  certainty,  if  he  would  be 
a  faithful  steward  of  the  grace  of  God.  The 
Christian  pulpit  stands  for  a  distinct  something  in 
all  lands  and  in  all  ages.  It  is  founded  upon  a 
definite  message,  which  has  created  it  and  justi- 
fies its  existence.  It  is  to  give  no  uncertain  sound, 
but  an  authentic  proclamation  of  prescribed  truth. 
It  is  not  a  searcher  after  truth  or  a  discoverer  of 
new  truth,  but  a  possessor  and  proclaimer  of  ac- 
cepted truth.  It  is  not  an  interrogation  point, 
or  a  weather-cock  veering  with  the  changing  wind. 
Its  finger  is  the  magnetized  needle,  pointing  in- 
variably and  surely  to  the  star  in  the  heavens. 
The  true  minister  is  to  be  a  safe  leader  who 
knows  the  way  through  the  wilderness  of  con- 
flicting opinions,  and  is  able  to  guide  others  in 
it,  a  competent  instructor  who  has  himself  been 
instructed  and  is  not  carried  about  by  every  wind 
of  doctrine,  and  a  believer  whose  faith  rests  se- 
curely upon  the  solid  rock  of  revealed  and  ex- 
perienced truth,  and  who  can  say  with  humble 
assurance,  "  I  know  whom  I  have  believed." 

Professor  William  Adams  Brown  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary  says,  "  The  world  has  a 
right   to   ask  of  the   Christian   minister   that  he 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  29 

knows  what  he  believes  and  why  he  believes  it. 
...  It  has  a  right  to  ask  of  the  man  who  speaks 
to  it  of  God's  continuing  power  to  renew  and 
to  transform,  that  his  own  life  should  evidence 
the  truth  of  his  words,"  in  others  words,  that  the 
truth  preached  should  be  illustrated  and  confirmed 
in  the  experience  of  every  preacher. 

A  church  that  would  save  the  world  from  the 
dominion  and  penalty  of  sin,  and  introduce  it  into 
the  fellowship  and  peace  of  God,  that  would 
reform  and  purify  society  in  all  its  diseased  con- 
ditions and  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  must 
know  how  to  sing  in  the  future  as  the  church  has 
loved  to  sing  in  the  victorious  past,  that  old 
eighteenth  century  hymn  of  unshaken  confidence, 

"  How  firm  a  foundation,  ye  saints  of  the  Lord, 
Is  laid  for  your  faith  in  his  excellent  Word." 

If  there  is  no  certainty  of  faith,  that  hymn  by 
George  Keith  must  be  discarded  and  expunged 
from  our  hymn  books,  as  a  past  superstition,  and 
its  echoes  only  come  down  to  us  from  a  happier 
time.  "  Interpreted  in  terms  of  modern  doubt  " 
(a  slight  change  in  words,  but  possessing  the  old 
meaning  as  often  used),  it  would  read. 

You  have  no  foundation,  ye  saints  of  the  Lord, 
Laid  up  for  your  faith  in  his  uncertain  Word. 

But  we  are  assured  that  the  faith  of  Christ's 


30      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

true  followers  is  much  more  precious  to  Him 
than  gold  that  perisheth,  that  the  foundation  of 
God  standeth  sure,  having  this  seal,  the  Lord 
knoweth  them  that  are  his,  and  that  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints,  unchanged  and  reg- 
nant, will  continue  to  triumph  over  all  error  and 
denial,  as  well  as  over  all  the  changing  theories 
of  so-called  progressive  thought.  A  faith  that 
has  wrought  such  marvelous  transformations  in 
human  character  and  life,  and  has  produced  such 
conspicuous  results  in  moral  sentiment,  in  legisla- 
tion and  government,  in  social  customs  and  civi- 
lization itself,  has  proved  its  divine  origin,  and 
established  its  claim  to  be  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
tion. It  needs  not  to  be  exchanged,  and  cannot 
be  improved  upon.  It  is  to  continue  to  be  su- 
preme in  the  realm  of  moral  and  religious  thought. 
As  unfolded  at  the  beginning,  having  upon  it  the 
stamp  of  Heaven's  mint,  it  is  to  dominate  all 
thinking,  however  modern,  and  to  pass  current  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  Like  its  divine  Author  it 
is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever. 

Principal  Fairbairn  says,  "  You  will  find  many 
a  beautiful  proverb  in  Seneca;  you  will  get  many 
a  fine  ethical  principle  in  Plato ;  you  will  find  in 
Stoicism  some  of  the  most  exalted  precepts  that 
human  ethics  have  ever  known.  But  mark  you 
one  thing,  you  will  never  discover  that  these  ele- 


CERTAINTY  OF  FAITH  31 

vatcd  the  common  life  of  man,  .  .  .  made  the 
bad  good  or  the  impure  holy.  Where  they  failed, 
Christ  succeeded  with  splendid,  glorious  success. 
He  made  out  of  the  very  outcasts  men  that  be- 
came saints  of  God."  The  late  Dr.  James  Orr, 
to  quote  again  from  his  able  work  on  "  The  Chris- 
tian View  of  God  and  the  World,"  uses  these 
significant  words:  "I  do  not  believe  that  the 
Christian  view  is  obsolete;  that  it  is  doomed  to 
go  down  like  a  faded  constellation  in  the  west 
of  the  sky  of  humanity.  I  do  not  believe  that 
in  order  to  preserve  it,  one  single  truth  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  see  shining  in  that  constella- 
tion, will  require  to  be  withdrawn.  The  world 
needs  them  all,  and  will  one  day  acknowledge  it. 
It  is  not  with  a  sense  of  failure,  therefore,  but 
with  a  sense  of  triumph,  that  I  see  the  progress 
of  the  battle  between  faith  and  unbelief.  I  have 
no  fear  that  the  conflict  will  issue  in  defeat.  Like 
the  ark  above  the  waters,  Christ's  religion  will 
ride  in  safety  the  waves  of  present-day  unbelief, 
as  it  has  ridden  the  waves  of  unbelief  in  days  gone 
by,  bearing  in  it  the  hopes  of  the  future  of  hu- 
manity." 


CHAPTER  11 

THE    BIBLE,    OUR    GREAT    EDUCATIONAL   ASSET 

THERE  never  was  a  time  when  the  book  or 
books  which  we  call  "  The  Book,"  was  so 
much  discussed  as  In  recent  years.  Its  origin, 
composition,  authorship,  authenticity,  inspiration, 
authority,  all  these  have  been  matters  in  constant 
debate.  The  "  higher  criticism,"  a  term  which 
is  very  misleading  to  those  w^ho  do  not  understand 
its  meaning,  its  scope,  its  limitations  and  its  re- 
sults, has  done  not  a  little  to  disturb  the  confidence 
of  many  persons  in  the  Word  of  God  as  an  au- 
thoritative revelation  of  truth.  This  discussion 
was  not  unexpected.  Wise  leaders  saw  the 
gathering  clouds.  President  Henry  G.  Weston 
said,  some  years  before  his  death  in  1909,  "  The 
next  great  battle  to  be  fought  will  be  over  the 
divine  origin  and  authority  of  the  Bible."  Men 
began  to  issue  publications  with  such  titles  as  this, 
"  The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt."  Friends 
and  foes  saw  that  the  Bible  was  the  Gibraltar  of 
the  Christian  religion.  On  this  issue  the  battle 
was  joined.  Dr.  Weston  lived  to  see  his  prophecy 
fulfilled. 

32 


THE  BIBLE  33 

It  should  be  said  that  the  term  "  higher  criti- 
cism "  denotes  a  kind  of  criticism,  and  not  its 
character  or  quality.  It  signifies  the  study  of  the 
origin  and  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  Bible, 
and  their  relation  to  the  facts  of  history  as  well 
as  to  each  other.  There  are  critics  and  critics, 
some  destructive  and  others  constructive.  Presi- 
dent E.  G.  Robinson  said,  "  I  am  glad  for  the 
existence  of  the  '  higher  criticism.'  It  is  ap- 
pointed of  God  like  every  other  method  of  test- 
ing the  truth  of  Christianity,  to  bring  that  truth 
more  clearly  to  light."  Unfortunately  it  has  not 
always  had  that  effect.  There  has  been,  however, 
of  late  a  strong  reaction  In  prominent  circles  in 
favor  of  the  evangelical  faith.  The  adverse 
criticisms  had  gone  too  far  to  carry  the  consent  of 
intelligent,  thinking  men,  and  numerous  conjec- 
tural opinions  have  been  compelled  to  be  aban- 
doned by  the  light  of  fuller  investigation  and 
modern  discovery. 

The  testimony  of  the  monuments  which  contain 
contemporaneous  records  bearing  upon  the  Old 
Testament  especially,  and  which  though  buried 
In  the  sand  for  centuries  have  in  the  providence 
of  God  been  unearthed  at  a  time  when  especially 
needed,  has  given  its  unvarying  confirmation  to 
the  truthfulness  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  we 
can  await  confidently  further  developments.     Says 


34     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Professor  George  Frederick  Wright,  an  acknowl- 
edged authority,  "  That  this  history  should  be 
confirmed  in  so  many  cases  and  in  such  a  remarka- 
ble manner  by  monuments  uncovered  3000  years 
after  their  erection,  can  be  nothing  else  than  provi- 
dential. Surely,  God  has  seen  to  it  that  the  fail- 
ing faith  of  these  later  days  should  not  be  left  to 
grope  in  darkness.  When  the  faith  of  many  was 
waning,  and  many  heralds  of  truth  were  tempted 
to  speak  with  uncertain  sound,  the  very  stones 
have  cried  out  with  a  voice  that  only  the  deaf 
could  fail  to  hear." 

Moreover,  men  have  come  to  recognize  more 
fully  than  ever  before  the  irresistible  witness  of 
the  Bible  to  its  own  claims,  its  transforming  in- 
fluence upon  thought  and  literature,  upon  char- 
acter and  life,  upon  the  development  of  the  in- 
dividual, the  welfare  of  the  community  and  the 
progress  of  nations.  Men  have  too  long  been 
discussing  "  mint  and  anise  and  cummin,"  and  are 
turning  now  to  the  weightier  matters  of  faith  and 
the  fundamentals  of  the  religious  life  and  the 
soul's  salvation.  Four  facts  need  to  be  recog- 
nized. The  Bible  is  still  here,  and  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  great  body  of  Biblical  scholars  still 
stands  as  "  an  impregnable  rock."  Christianity  is 
still  here,  with  its  authoritative  sanctions,  its  holy 
inspirations  and  its  lofty  ideals,  unweakened  and 


THE  BIBLE  35 

untarnished.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  still  here, 
with  a  constantly  widening  influence  and  a  con- 
stantly increasing  fellowship,  Christ  is  still  here, 
with  his  imperative  challenge  to  the  faith,  the 
love  and  the  supreme  devotion  of  the  world,  de- 
claring evermore,  "  All  power  is  given  unto  me 
in  heaven  and  in  earth,"  and  sending  out  his 
gracious  invitatio,n  which  demands  a  courteous 
response,  "  Come  unto  me." 

Another  fact  should  be  recognized  more  than 
it  is  wont  to  be,  viz.,  the  preservative  influence 
of  the  Bible.  It  is  the  Bible  that  has  preserved 
Christianity  as  a  definite  system  of  religion,  with 
its  holy  inspirations  and  lofty  ideals,  and  saved 
it  from  degenerating  into  a  lifeless  deism  or  some 
form  of  natural  religion,  which  neither  satisfies 
nor  saves.  It  is  the  Bible  that  has  preserved  the 
Church  from  decay  and  been  to  it  its  authorita- 
tive standard  of  faith,  and  its  mighty  instrument 
of  conquest  among  men,  sometimes  calling  it  back 
from  gross  departures  to  a  simple  spiritual  faith. 
It  is  the  Bible  that  has  kept  living  and  vivid  the 
portrait  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  world,  and 
preserved  it  from  fading  into  an  unreal  and 
powerless  myth.  Christ  is  enshrined  in  the  Bible, 
not  as  a  gem  in  a  beautiful  setting,  but  as  a  living, 
breathing  Presence,  imparting  life  to  its  sacred 
pages  and  sharing  with  its  truth  his  own  immor- 


36     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

tality.     So  long  as  Christ  is  its  tenant,  men  need 
not  fear  for  the  ark  of  the  Lord. 

The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  didactic,  not  con- 
troversial, to  indicate  the  important  and  neces- 
sary place  which  this  Bible,  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  must  hold  in  any  complete  educational 
system,  to  suggest  its  supreme  value  as  a  part  of 
our  educational  equipment.  The  Bible  is  con- 
fessedly the  most  unique  and  conspicuous  book  in 
the  English  language  or  in  any  language.  It  has 
been  called  "  The  greatest  English  classic."  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  Chief  Justice  of  England,  de- 
clared, "  There  is  no  book  like  the  Bible  for  ex- 
cellent learning,  wisdom  and  use."  John  Quincy 
Adams  confessed,  "  The  first  and  almost  the  only 
book  deserving  attention  is  the  Bible."  And 
Professor  O.  M.  Mitchell,  the  devout  Astronomer 
and  patriotic  General,  expressed  his  belief  that 
"  The  most  wonderful  volume  in  existence  is,  be- 
yond a  doubt,  the  Bible."  These  testimonials, 
and  other  similar  ones  almost  without  number, 
from  men  eminent  in  every  calling  and  profession 
in  life,  give  to  the  Bible  the  supreme  place  in  our 
literature,  and  in  the  mental  and  moral  training 
of  the  race,  a  Book  to  be  sacredly  honored,  to  be 
devoutly  studied  and  to  be  passionately  loved. 
No  other  attainments  can  render  a  knowledge  of 
this  Book  superfluous.     It  forms  a  necessary  part 


THE  BIBLE  37 

of  a  liberal  education.  No  man  can  claim  to  be 
a  truly  educated  man  who  has  not  made  himself 
familiar  with  the  contents  of  this  Book,  and 
learned  the  lessons  which  it  inculcates. 

There  are  five  methods  of  studying  the  Bible, 
viz.,  the  historical,  the  biographical,  the  literary, 
the  ethical  and  the  religious.  All  are  important, 
but  all  are  not  equally  important.  But  all  are 
necessary  to  the  complete  mastery  of  the  Book. 

I.  The  Bible  contains  the  history  of  a  remarka- 
ble people,  called  by  way  of  distinction  "  God's 
ancient  people  ";  of  the  development  of  its  moral 
and  religious  life,  of  its  solitary  monotheistic 
faith,  of  its  relations  to  other  peoples  friendly 
and  hostile,  of  its  survival  under  conquest  and 
exile,  and  of  the  strange  preparation  in  it  and 
evolution  out  of  it,  of  a  religion  which  bears  the 
name  of  "  Christianity,"  which  has  proved  to  be 
the  mightiest  force  in  our  modern  civilization,  and 
is  destined  to  overcome  all  other  religious  faiths, 
and  eventually  to  rule  the  world.  Professor  Ben- 
jamin W.  Bacon  of  Yale  University,  speaking  of 
Christianity  as  we  know  it,  characterizes  it  in 
these  words,  *'  The  religion  of  humanity  which 
it  has  become,  and  the  world-religion  which  it  is 
destined  to  be."  All  this  is  included  in  the  his- 
torical study  of  the  Jewish  people,  which  inhabited 
a  narrow  strip  of  territory  lying  on  the  eastern 


38     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

border  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  a  territory 
which  though  narrow  and  insignificant  when  com- 
pared with  the  great  empires  of  the  old  world, 
was  the  thoroughfare  of  the  nations,  and  whose 
history  by  reason  of  its  connection  with  other 
lands,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  its  far  reaching  in- 
fluence, is  an  integral  part  of  universal  history. 

History  is  a  legitimate  study  and  forms  an 
essential  part  in  an  educational  curriculum.  No 
education  is  complete  and  worthy  of  the  name, 
which  does  not  include  a  knowledge  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
and  even  of  the  great  empires  of  the  farther  East, 
India  and  Japan  and  China.  Modern  education 
lays  a  tremendous  emphasis  upon  the  study  of  the 
classic  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the 
history  of  the  peoples  who  spoke  them.  Should 
it  not  give  an  equal  place  to  the  study  of  the  his- 
tory of  Israel  and  the  land  of  Syria,  which  have 
had  a  mightier  influence  at  least  upon  the  life  and 
civilization  of  the  West  than  Greece  and  Rome 
combined?  It  is  said,  as  if  by  way  of  explana- 
tion, that  the  Greeks  had  a  genius  for  art,  the 
Romans  for  law  and  government,  and  the  Jews 
for  religion.  That  is  probably  an  explanation 
which  does  not  wholly  explain.  But  religion  is 
as  much  a  matter  of  history  as  art  and  government, 
and  its  study  is  certainly  as  broadening  and  illumi- 


THE  BIBLE  39 

nating,  and  as  helpful  to  life  and  character, 
whether  personal  or  national.  Art  found  per- 
manent expression  in  architecture  and  the  beauty 
of  sculptured  form.  Law  found  permanent  ex- 
pression in  the  Roman  Pandects,  a  digest  of  the 
decisions  and  opinions  of  the  Roman  jurists  made 
in  the  sixth  century  by  order  of  the  Emperor  Jus- 
tinian. And  religion  found  permanent  expression 
in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  which  have 
molded  the  thinking  and  conduct  of  men  and 
the  life  of  nations  until  now,  and  never  more 
powerfully  than  at  the  present  time.  All  this  is 
history.  To  study  the  Bible  historically  is  to  be- 
come familiar  not  only  with  the  external  events 
of  the  Hebrew  nation,  marvelous  as  some  of  them 
were,  but  with  its  spirit,  its  genius  and  its  faith, 
and  with  the  beginnings  of  the  religion  founded 
by  Him  of  whom  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richter 
says,  "  He  is  the  purest  among  the  mighty,  the 
mightiest  among  the  pure,  who  with  his  pierced 
hand  has  raised  empires  from  their  foundations, 
turned  the  stream  of  history  from  its  old  channel, 
and  still  continues  to  rule  and  guide  the  ages." 
Inevitably  the  study  of  this  ancient  history  will  find 
much  about  it  that  will  justify  the  term  "  sacred," 
which  is  uniformly  applied  to  it,  much  that  will 
be  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  presence  and  pur- 
pose, Interposition  and  guidance  of  the  supreme 


40     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Ruler  of  the  universe.  Dr.  William  S.  Rainsford 
has  well  said,  "  We  owe  much  to  the  beauty- 
loving  Greeks,  we  owe  much  to  the  law-making 
Romans;  but  more,  far  more  do  we  owe  to  the 
God-loving  Jews." 

The  following  paragraph  is  taken  from  "  The 
American  Mind "  by  that  eminent  litterateur. 
Professor  Bliss  Perry,  who  discloses  a  just  insight 
into  the  forces,  subtle  and  complex,  which  have 
produced  our  Western  civilization.  "  For  that 
matter,  what  was,  and  is,  that  one  Book  —  to  the 
eyes  of  the  Protestant  seventeenth  century  infalli- 
ble and  inexpressibly  sacred  —  but  the  most  potent 
and  universal  commerce  of  ideas  and  spirit,  pass- 
ing from  the  Orient  through  Greek  and  Roman 
civilization,  into  the  mind  and  heart  of  western 
Europe  and  America? 

'Oh,  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West, 
And  ne'er  the  twain  shall  meet,' 

declares  a  confident  poet  of  to-day.  But  East 
and  West  met  long  ago  in  the  matchless  phrases 
translated  from  Hebrew  and  Greek  and  Latin 
into  the  English  Bible;  and  the  heart  of  the  East 
there  answers  to  the  heart  of  the  West,  as  in 
water  face  answereth  to  face.  That  the  coloniz- 
ing Englishmen  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
Hebrews  in  spiritual  culture,  and  heirs  of  Greece 


THE  BIBLE  41 

and  Rome  without  ceasing  to  be  Anglo-Saxon  in 
blood,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  history  of 
civilization,  and  it  is  one  of  the  basal  facts  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  United  States  to-day." 

2.  The  second  method  of  studying  the  Bible 
is  the  biographical.  This  is  nearly  related  to  the 
historical,  for  biography  is  largely  history  per- 
sonified. Human  history  is  the  story  of  human 
lives,  singly  or  in  groups.  Great  movements  in 
the  annals  of  the  world  are  connected  with  the 
men  who  are  denominated  great  leaders,  kings, 
generals,  statesmen,  reformers  and  philanthro- 
pists, and  are  revelations  of  their  genius,  their 
character,  their  ambitions,  their  aspirations,  their 
ability,  their  convictions  and  their  personal  traits. 
To  know  history  is  to  know  men,  their  activity, 
their  influence,  their  successes  or  failures,  their 
victories  or  defeats.  Educators  to-day  are  em- 
phasizing the  v^alue  of  the  study  of  biography 
as  one  of  the  most  attractive,  inspiring,  character- 
building  branches  of  learning.  Our  libraries  are 
being  filled  with  the  lives  of  those  who  have  been 
really  or  supposedly  great  among  their  fellows, 
and  worthy  of  permanent  record,  who  have  made 
conspicuous  attainments,  illustrated  great  princi- 
ples and  served  noble  causes.  Even  fiction  ac- 
quires its  principal  charm,  not  from  its  literary 
style,  but  from  the  imaginary  characters  which  it 


42      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

portrays,  and  the  living  incidents  which  make  up 
its  chapters.  It  is  a  real  world  into  which  the 
Bible  introduces  us,  with  inhabitants  like  ourselves, 
intensely  human,  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our 
flesh,  living  our  lives,  sharing  our  experiences  of 
temptation  and  trial,  of  joy  and  sorrow,  and 
looking  forward  to  the  same  destiny.  It  is  not 
a  world  of  myths  and  unrealities.  It  is  no  fic- 
tion. Reality  impresses  us  everywhere.  As  an- 
other has  said,  "  There  is  no  other  book  which 
reflects  so  many  sides  and  aspects  of  human  ex- 
perience as  the  Bible,  and  this  fact  alone  would 
suffice  to  give  it  a  worldwide  interest  and  make  it 
popular.  Born  in  the  East  and  clothed  in 
Oriental  form  and  imagery,  the  Bible  walks  the 
ways  of  all  the  world  with  familiar  feet,  and  en- 
ters land  after  land  to  find  its  own  everywhere." 
It  is  humanity's  book  and  makes  its  appeal  to  every 
age  and  nation. 

The  Bible  is  throbbing  with  human  life.  It  Is 
not  simply  a  book  of  philosophy  however  sublime, 
nor  of  unlllustrated  moral  and  religious  truth.  It 
Is  crowded  with  the  names  and  deeds  of  men  and 
women  who  were  prominent  in  their  time,  and 
will  be  prominent  in  all  time;  It  is  alive  with  char- 
acters which  are  worthy  of  devout  study  and  of 
perpetual  imitation.  This  fact  constitutes  its  re- 
sistless attraction  and  no  small  part  of  its  perma- 


THE  BIBLE  43 

nent  value.  The  world  cannot  afford  to  forget 
Enoch,  the  man  who  knew  how  to  "  walk  with 
God  and  was  not,  for  God  took  him,"  or  Abra- 
ham the  man  of  sublime  faith  and  the  founder  of 
a  great  nation,  "  who  looked  with  clear  vision  for 
a  city  which  hath  foundations  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God,"  or  Moses,  the  father  of  history 
and  matchless  leader  of  his  people,  "  who  chose 
rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God 
than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season," 
or  Joseph,  the  heroic  and  incorruptible  official, 
or  David,  the  royal  singer,  whose  Psalms,  born 
out  of  his  own  experience,  will  express  the  deepest 
experiences  of  the  humble,  the  devout,  the  true, 
the  God-fearing  in  all  the  ages,  or  Elijah,  the 
prophet  of  fire  and  defender  of  the  one  true  God, 
or  Isaiah,  the  magnificent  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness and  sweet  voiced  prophet  of  the  coming  Mes- 
siah and  the  glory  of  his  kingdom,  or  any  of  the 
other  prophets  and  servants  of  God  who  stood  for 
justice  and  humanity,  and  whose  messages  are  find- 
ing fresh  application  to-day  for  the  rectification 
of  the  oppressions  and  wrongs  of  our  social  con- 
ditions, heroes  and  martyrs,  a  great  company, 
some  of  whose  names  are  written  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Hebrews,  the  Westminster  Abbey  of 
the  ancient  Church,  men  "  who  through  faith  sub- 
dued kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained 


44     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  .  .  .  were 
stoned,  sawn  asunder,  tempted,  slain  with  the 
sword,  .  .  .  being  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented, 
not  accepting  deliverance,  that  they  might  obtain 
a  better  resurrection,  of  whom  the  world  was  not 
worthy."  Surely,  to  live  in  such  company  and 
look  upon  such  lives  is  to  live  in  the  heroic  age 
of  the  world,  and  be  lifted  up  out  of  the  narrow- 
ness and  littleness  of  the  ordinary,  selfish,  hum- 
drum existence. 

No  more  can  the  world  afford  to  forget  Peter, 
the  impulsive,  fickle,  steadfast,  lion-hearted  apostle 
and  martyr,  or  Paul,  the  persecutor,  then  the 
pioneer  missionary  and  founder  of  churches  and 
mighty  teacher,  who  laid  his  frail  body  and 
vigorous  intellect  without  reserve  upon  the  altar 
of  his  new  found  faith,  or  John,  who  once  a  son 
of  thunder,  became  the  devout  mystic  and  the 
apostle  of  love,  and  was  admitted  into  the  inner 
chamber  of  his  Master's  person  and  spirit,  or 
Stephen,  the  proto-martyr  under  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation, who  when  the  cruel  stones  were  crush- 
ing the  life  out  of  him,  had  a  vision  of  his  ascended 
Lord,  to  whom  he  committed  his  departing  spirit, 
and  the  angels  had  a  vision  of  the  Christ-spirit 
dwelling  in  him,  as  he  prayed  for  his  murderers, 
that  their  sin  might  not  be  laid  to  their  charge, 
and  indeed  there  was  a  threefold  vision,  for  his 


THE  BIBLE  45 

murderers  looked  upon  his  shining  face  as  it  had 
been  the  face  of  an  angel.  And  who  can  afford 
to  forget  the  Master  himself,  who,  regarded  as 
a  merely  human  being,  a  man  among  men,  stood 
upon  the  very  pinnacle  of  moral  excellence,  pos- 
sessing in  Himself  all  beauty,  symmetry,  harmony, 
completeness  and  perfection  of  life,  the  one  abso- 
lute illustration  of  genuine  manhood  for  all  the 
ages  to  the  end  of  time,  whose  life  Carlyle  calls 
"  a  perfect  ideal  poem  "  and  whose  person  "  the 
greatest  of  all  heroes";  with  whom  Rousseau 
says  "  Socrates  was  not  to  be  compared,"  whom 
Goethe  calls  "  the  divine  man,"  "  the  pattern  and 
model  of  humanity,"  and  of  whom  Renan  speaks 
as  "  the  incomparable  man,"  and  adds  "  what- 
ever may  be  the  surprises  of  the  future  Jesus  will 
never  be  surpassed.  His  worship  will  grow 
young  without  ceasing,  his  legend  will  call  forth 
tears  without  end,  his  sufferings  will  melt  the 
noblest  hearts,  and  all  ages  will  proclaim,  that 
among  the  sons  of  men,  there  is  none  born  greater 
than  Jesus."  When  we  find  unbelievers  employ- 
ing such  unqualified  language  in  describing  the 
character  of  the  man,  Christ  Jesus,  we  need  not 
be  surprised  to  hear  Dr.  Philip  Schaff,  a  devout 
and  learned  disciple,  speaking  of  Him  as  "  over- 
flowing with  the  purest  love  to  men,  free  from 
every  sin  and  error,  innocent  and  holy,  teaching 


46      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

and  practicing  all  virtues  in  perfect  harmony,  de- 
v-oted  solely  and  uniformly  to  the  noblest  ends, 
sealing  the  purest  life  with  the  sublimest  death, 
and  ever  acknowledged  since  as  the  one  and  only 
perfect  Model  of  goodness  and  holiness."  It  is 
well  to  remember  that  all  evolution  in  character 
is  evolution  backward,  towards  the  one  flawless 
Example  and  Model  for  all  mankind. 

Is  biography  worth  while  in  a  system  of  educa- 
tion?    Is  it  true  that 

"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime"? 

Is  familiarity  with  noble  examples  of  men  who 
have  been  consecrated  to  truth  and  righteousness, 
to  God  and  humanity,  inspiring  and  helpful  to 
right  living?  Does  it  have  an  important  place 
in  mental  training  and  moral  discipline?  Can  it 
be  placed  side  by  side,  as  an  educational  influence 
and  aid  to  character  and  culture,  with  an  acquaint- 
ance with  many  languages,  living  and  dead,  and 
the  reasonings  of  human  philosophy,  and  the  facts 
of  natural  science?  Does  fellowship  with  those 
who  have  "  dealt  justly,  and  loved  mercy,  and 
walked  humbly  before  God,"  who  have  illustrated 
the  higher  manhood  and  served  their  generation 
acceptably,  stimulate  and  broaden,  strengthen  and 
uplift,  in  a  word,  educate  and  lead  out  the  mind 


THE  BIBLE  47 

to  larger  possibilities  and  loftier  endeavors? 
Then,  where  can  be  found  nobler  and  more  in- 
spiring biographies,  examples  more  worthy  of 
imitation,  lives  whose  fellowship  would  be  more 
valuable  than  those  recorded  in  the  pages  of  the 
Bible?  The  saintly  Dr.  Edward  Payson,  of 
blessed  memory,  spoke  of  the  companionships  in 
the  Bible  in  this  manner:  "  By  opening  this 
volume  we  may  at  any  time  walk  in  the  garden  of 
Eden  with  Adam,  sit  in  the  ark  with  Noah,  share 
the  hospitality  or  witness  the  faith  of  Abraham, 
ascend  the  mount  of  God  with  Moses,  unite  in 
the  secret  devotions  of  David,  or  listen  to  the 
eloquent  and  impassioned  address  of  Paul.  Nay, 
more;  we  may  here  converse  with  Him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake,  participate  with  the  just  made 
perfect  in  the  employment  and  happiness  of 
Heaven,  and  enjoy  sweet  communion  with  the 
Father  of  our  spirits  through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
Such  is  the  society  to  which  the  Scriptures  intro- 
duce us,  such  the  examples  which  they  present  for 
our  imitation," 

The  following  apt  quotation  is  taken  from  "  Re- 
ligion as  Life  "  by  President  Henry  Churchill 
King.  "  Just  because  the  method  of  life  includes, 
as  everywhere  requisite,  fellowship,  men  are 
driven  to  find  the  great  sources  of  life,  short  of 
God  himself,  in  the  most  rewarding  personalities 


48     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

of  the  moral  and  religious  sphere,  and  so  to  give 
special  place  to  the  great  line  of  prophetic  seers 
of  the  spiritual,  culminating  in  Jesus." 

3.  A  third  method  of  studying  the  Bible  is  the 
literary  method.  The  Bible,  it  has  been  affirmed 
without  contradiction,  *'  holds  a  place  of  pre- 
eminence in  the  republic  of  letters."  It  is  not 
only  "  part  and  parcel  of  the  human  story,"  but 
it  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  world's  literature. 
Not  only  in  elevation  and  sublimity  of  thought, 
but  in  simplicity  and  beauty,  dignity  and  charm 
of  expression,  it  is  not  only  unsurpassed,  but  is 
without  a  parallel  among  the  myriads  of  volumes 
that  crowd  each  other  on  library  shelves,  and  more 
than  they  all  together,  our  English  version  has  in- 
fluenced the  thinking  and  literary  style  of  the  au- 
thors of  books  that  have  won  recognition  and  any 
degree  of  permanence  during  the  three  hundred 
years  since  its  production.  John  Richard  Green, 
the  historian,  declares,  "  As  a  mere  literary  monu- 
ment, the  English  of  the  Bible  remains  the  noblest 
example  of  the  English  tongue,  while  its  perpetual 
use  made  it  from  the  instant  of  its  appearance  the 
standard  of  our  language."  Macaulay,  in  his 
"  Essay  on  Dryden,"  characterizes  the  English  Bi- 
ble as  "  a  book  which,  if  everything  else  in  our 
language  should  perish,  would  alone  suffice  to 
show  the  extent  of  its  beauty  and  power."     Pro- 


THE  BIBLE  49 

fessor  George  P.  Marsh,  an  unquestioned  au- 
thority, expresses  his  conviction  that  "  Tyndale's 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  has  exerted  a 
more  marked  influence  upon  English  philology 
than  any  other  native  work  between  the  ages  of 
Chaucer  and  Shakespeare."  Indeed,  he  goes  so 
far  as  to  affirm  that  "  the  English  Bible  has  made 
the  English  language."  It  would  not  be  difficult 
to  fill  a  good  sized  volume  with  similar  testimonies 
as  to  the  dominant  character  and  molding  influ- 
ence of  our  Scriptures  upon  the  literature  and  lan- 
guage of  English-speaking  peoples. 

A  short  time  ago  the  New  York  "  Nation  " 
quoted  from  a  European  journal  as  follows: 
"  The  philosophies,  the  literatures,  the  arts  and 
the  languages  themselves  of  Western  civilization 
have  been  nourished  in  large  part  by  the  Bible. 
The  Biblical  tradition  impregnates  all  of  our 
fashions  of  thinking  and  speaking.  A  man  totally 
unacquainted  with  sacred  history  would  go  through 
the  world  as  if  deaf  and  blind.  A  people  that 
loses  familiarity  with  the  Bible  is  exiled  from  its 
spiritual  and  intellectual  fatherhood,  and  becomes 
a  band  of  outlaws." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Tyndale's  version 
of  the  Bible  (about  1534)  which  flowered  into  the 
version  of  161 1,  the  most  splendid  piece  of  Eng- 
lish of  all  the  versions,  was  based  upon  previous 


50     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

translations,  going  back  to  Wycliffe's  (about 
1384).  It  will  also  be  remembered  that  the  cen- 
tury in  which  the  King  James  version  was  com- 
pleted and  published,  lying  between  1550  and 
1650,  "  gave  birth  to  more  men,"  to  quote  from 
Professor  T.  Harwood  Pattison,  "  who  were 
destined  to  great  literary  distinction  than  has  any 
other  period  of  equal  length  in  English  history." 
It  is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  names  of  Raleigh 
and  Spenser  and  Hooker,  of  Jeremy  Taylor  and 
Robert  South,  of  Izaak  Walton  and  Lord  Bacon 
and  George  Herbert,  of  Leighton  and  Owen  and 
Baxter,  and  above  all  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton 
and  Bunyan.  Among  these  brilliant  luminaries 
of  that  brilliant  century  the  Bible  shines  as  the 
bright,  particular  planet.  As  a  literary  orb  Cow- 
per's  language  is  true  of  it, 

"  A  glory  gilds  the  sacred  page, 

Majestic  like  the  sun, 
It  gives  a  light  to  every  age, 

It  gives,  but  borrov?s  none." 

Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the  chief  element 
that  gives  elevation  and  attractiveness  and  perma- 
nence to  contemporaneous  literature,  as  well  as 
subsequent,  is  the  infusion  of  the  thought,  kinship 
with  the  style  and  allusions  to  the  incidents  and 
imagery  of  the  Bible.  Shakespeare  is  sometimes 
said  to  be  "  saturated  "  with  the  Bible,  so   fre- 


THE  BIBLE  51 

quent  are  its  references  to  the  characters  and 
phraseology  of  Scripture,  while  Milton  and  Bun- 
yan  often  seem  little  more  than  paraphrases. 

It  would  be  easy  to  cite  the  names  of  men  who 
have  been  distinguished  in  the  fields  of  history 
and  science,  statesmanship  and  literature,  who 
have  borne  glad  testimony  to  their  reverence  for 
the  Bible  and  its  creative  and  formative  influence 
upon  their  thought  and  literary  style,  or  whose 
writings  have  plainly  revealed  the  master-spirit  at 
whose  feet  they  have  patiently  and  admiringly 
sat,  and  whose  lessons  they  have  not  failed  to  im- 
bibe, for  it  is  evermore  true  that  a  man's  speech 
often  betrayeth  him.  In  addition  to  Macaulay 
and  Green  in  the  realm  of  history,  already  men- 
tioned, we  think  of  Froude  and  Milman  and  Free- 
man, of  Bancroft  and  Motley  and  Prescott  and  of 
Washington  Irving,  who  confessed,  "  I  think  I 
have  waked  a  good  many  sleeping  fancies  by  the 
reading  of  a  chapter  in  Isaiah."  In  the  realm  of 
science,  we  think  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  and  David 
Brewster,  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy  and  Faraday, 
who  expounded  the  Bible  every  Sunday  in  the 
meeting  of  an  obscure  religious  sect,  and  of  our 
own  Agassiz  and  Gray  and  Dana,  who  were  dili- 
gent students  of  the  Bible,  and  even  of  Professor 
Huxley,  who  could  not  withhold  his  testimony  to 
the  educational  value  of  the  Bible,   for  he  said: 


52     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

"  For  three  centuries  this  book  has  been  woven  into 
the  life  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
history;  it  has  become  the  national  epic  of  Britain, 
and  is  as  familiar  to  noble  and  simple,  from  John 
O'Groat's  House  to  Land's  End,  as  Dante  and 
Tasso  once  were  to  the  Italians."  In  the  realm 
of  statesmanship  we  think  of  Cromwell  and 
Shaftesbury,  of  Bright  and  Gladstone,  whom  their 
familiarity  with  the  Bible  qualified  for  their  high 
service,  and  of  Washington,  who  associated  "  the 
pure  and  benign  light  of  Revelation  "  with  "  re- 
finement of  manners  and  growing  liberality  of 
sentiment,"  and  Webster,  who  ascribed  the  dig- 
nity and  stateliness  of  his  speech  to  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament  prophets, 
and  Lincoln,  who  had  almost  no  other  text  book 
than  the  Bible,  and  whose  classic  and  immortal 
utterances  glow  with  its  beauty  and  spirit.  In 
the  realm  of  prose  literature  we  think  of  Wal- 
ter Scott,  who  called  for  "  the  Book "  in  his 
last  hour,  saying  "  there  was  only  one  Book," 
of  Dickens  and  Thackeray,  in  whose  writings 
hundreds  of  Biblical  allusions  are  found,  of 
Ruskin,  who  paid  an  affectionate  tribute  to  his 
Bible  and  to  his  mother,  who  with  gentle  authority 
early  introduced  him  to  its  purity  of  thought  and 
of  language,  of  Matthew  Arnold  and  Walter 
Pater   and   A.    C.    Benson,    of   Hawthorne    and 


THE  BIBLE  53 

Emerson,  to  speak  of  no  others  in  the  long  list 
of  prose  writers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
And  in  the  realm  of  modern  poetry  we  think 
of  Cowper  and  Wordsworth,  of  Tennyson  and 
Browning  and  Edwin  Arnold,  of  Longfellow 
and  Whittier  and  Lowell  and  Bryant,  all  of  whom 
drank  deep  at  this  pure  Pierian  spring,  and  have 
imparted  their  inspiration  to  their  own  genera- 
tion, and  will  impart  it  to  the  generations  that 
follow. 

A  few  personal  testimonies  of  superior  weight 
will  emphasize  the  literary  value  of  the  Bible  as 
an  educational  asset.  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana, 
the  successful  American  journalist,  in  an  address 
at  Union  College  to  students  who  might  be  con- 
templating entering  upon  that  profession,  said: 
"  There  are  some  books  that  are  absolutely  in- 
dispensable, .  .  .  and  of  all  these  the  most  in- 
dispensable, the  most  useful,  the  one  whose  knowl- 
edge is  most  effective,  is  the  Bible.  There  is  no 
book  from  which  more  valuable  lessons  can  be 
learned.  I  am  considering  it  now  not  as  a  re- 
ligious book,  but  as  a  manual  of  utility,  of  pro- 
fessional preparation  and  professional  use  for  a 
journalist.  There  is  perhaps  no  book  whose  style 
is  more  suggestive  and  more  instructive,  from 
which  you  learn  more  directly  that  sublime  sim- 
plicity which   never   exaggerates,   which   recounts 


54     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  greatest  event  with  solemnity  of  course,  but 
without  sentimentality  or  affectation;  none  which 
you  open  with  such  confidence  and  lay  down  with 
such  reverence;  there  is  no  book  like  the  Bible." 
Froude,  the  historian,  speaking  of  the  translation 
of  Tyndale,  says,  "  The  peculiar  genius  which 
breathes  through  it,  the  mingled  tenderness  and 
majesty,  the  Saxon  simplicity,  the  preternatural 
grandeur,  unequaled,  unapproached  in  the  at- 
tempted improvements  of  modern  scholars,  are 
all  here,  and  bear  the  impress  of  one  man,  and 
that  man  William  Tyndale."  Sir  Edwin  Arnold, 
of  international  reputation  in  the  field  of  letters, 
frankly  acknowledges  in  answer  to  the  query, 
"  What  I  owe  to  the  Bible?  "  "  My  short  reply 
would  be  '  everything.'  My  long  reply,  to  be 
sufficiently  serious  and  comprehensive,  would  run 
into  reams  of  paper.  But  if,  as  I  suppose,  I  am 
addressed  as  a  man  of  letters,  I  will  simply  say 
that  I  owe  my  education  as  a  writer  more  to  the 
Bible  than  to  any  other  hundred  books  that  could 
be  named.  It  is  the  grandest  possible  school  of 
style,  letting  alone  all  that  it  must  ever  be  on  the 
moral  and  spiritual  side.  I  had  read  the  Bible 
through  and  through  three  times  over  before  I 
was  twelve  years  of  age." 

Professor  Hoare,  of  Balliol  College,  is  quoted 
as  follows,  "  The  Bible  is  accepted  as  a  literary 


THE  BIBLE  55 

masterpiece,  as  the  noblest  and  most  beautiful 
book  in  the  world,  which  has  exercised  an  incal- 
culable influence  upon  religion,  upon  manners, 
upon  literature  and  upon  character."  Professor 
Simon  Greenleaf,  once  Professor  in  Harvard 
University,  has  expressed  his  deliberate  verdict 
in  these  words,  "  In  sublimity  of  thought,  in 
grandeur  of  conception,  in  purity  and  elevation 
of  moral  principle,  in  the  practical  wisdom  of  its 
teachings,  and  the  universality  and  perpetuity  of 
their  application,  and  above  all,  in  the  high  and 
important  character  of  its  themes,  the  Holy  Bible 
is  not  even  approached  by  any  human  composi- 
tion." Theodore  Parker  left  behind  him  this 
honest  judgment,  "  View  it  in  what  light  we  may, 
the  Bible  is  a  very  surprising  phenomenon.  It 
is  read  of  a  Sabbath  in  all  the  ten  thousand  pul- 
pits of  our  land.  In  all  the  temples  of  Christen- 
dom is  its  voice  lifted  up,  week  by  week.  The 
sun  never  sets  on  its  gleaming  page.  It  goes 
equally  to  the  cottage  of  the  plain  man,  and  the 
palace  of  the  king.  It  is  woven  into  the  litera- 
ture of  the  scholar,  and  colors  the  talk  of  the 
street.  ...  It  blesses  us  when  we  are  born,  gives 
names  to  half  of  Christendom,  rejoices  with  us, 
has  sympathy  for  our  mourning,  and  tempers  our 
grief  to  finer  issues.  It  is  the  better  part  of  our 
sermons.     It  lifts  man  above  himself;  our  best 


S6     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

of  uttered  prayers  are  In  its  storied  speech,  where- 
with our  fathers  and  the  patriarchs  prayed."  Dr. 
Andrew  P.  Peabody,  formerly  a  Professor  in  Har- 
vard University,  declared,  "  Our  Bible  is  still  the 
key  to  the  best  English  diction,  and  by  conversance 
with  it  our  children  are  made  familiar  with  their 
own  language  in  a  purer  form  than  any  other 
which  can  be  placed  before  them."  And  John 
Stuart  Mill  adds  his  testimony  in  these  words, 
"  The  Bible  and  Shakespeare  have  done  more 
than  any  other  books  for  the  English  language,  in- 
troducing into  the  soul  of  it  such  grand  ideas  ex- 
pressed with  such  sublime  simplicity." 

Such  consenting  and  unanimous  testimony  from 
the  great  world  of  letters,  from  which  there  is  no 
discordant  note,  gives  to  the  English  Bible  not 
only  an  exalted  place,  but  the  supreme  place  in 
its  influence  upon  the  literary  product  of  English- 
speaking  people.  In  it  we  have  narrative  and 
parable,  poetry  and  song,  oratory  and  drama,  de- 
nunciation and  promise,  moral  precept,  theological 
statement  and  glowing  prophecy,  all  expressed 
with  a  simplicity  and  lucidity,  beauty  and  charm, 
dignity  and  sublimity,  force  and  impressiveness, 
unsurpassed,  not  to  say  unequaled.  If  familiarity 
with  literature  is  a  necessary  part  of  a  liberal 
education,  and  if  the  highest  literature  will  in- 
evitably   tend    to    cultivate    the    noblest    think- 


THE  BIBLE  57 

ing,  as  well  as  furnish  the  best  training  in 
the  use  of  words  and  forms  of  expression, 
the  student  who  is  ambitious  to  achieve  ex- 
cellence for  himself,  and  even  to  read  intelli- 
gently the  classics  in  his  own  tongue,  must  give 
himself  diligently  and  conscientiously  to  that  Book 
which,  as  a  living  x'Xmerican  educator  has  recently 
said,  "  has  had  an  immeasurable  effect  upon  the 
whole  body  of  English  literature,  and  has  shaped 
not  only  the  thought  of  the  greatest  writers  and 
orators,  but  also  their  phraseology  and  style,  who 
expect  their  readers  to  know  the  meanings  of 
the  scriptural  allusions  with  which  their  works 
abound." 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  our  educational  system, 
from  the  lowest  grade  to  the  highest,  is  culpably 
neglecting  a  chief  source  of  culture,  and  that  the 
neglect  of  home  training  and  the  changed  method 
of  Sunday  School  instruction,  which  requires  little 
of  the  language  of  the  Bible  to  be  committed  to 
memory,  are  giving  to  us  a  generation,  whose  cul- 
ture Is  greatly  Inferior  to  that  of  the  fathers,  and 
which  Is  disqualified  from  appreciating  the  riches 
of  our  literary  inheritance.  The  results  of  tests 
which  Professors  in  colleges  have  submitted  to 
their  students  In  order  to  ascertain  their  ability  to 
understand   Scriptural   allusions   In   our   standard 


58      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

literature,  would  be  amusing,  if  they  were  not  so 
painful  and  deplorable, 

4.  The  fourth  method  of  studying  the  Bible, 
and  a  method  vastly  more  important  than  those 
which  have  been  considered,  is  the  ethical  method. 
More  valuable  than  the  informing  and  training  of 
the  mind  and  the  cultivation  of  the  literary  taste 
and  style,  is  the  inculcation  of  moral  principle  and 
the  development  of  personal  character.  It  can 
be  safely  said  that  no  book  in  our  language  or  in 
any  language  can  be  compared  with  the  Bible  as 
a  moral  dynamic.  For  its  exalted  moral  teach- 
ings, for  its  principles  which  should  control  con- 
duct and  life,  for  its  inspired  guidance  for  man 
in  all  his  relations,  the  Bible  furnishes  the  abso- 
lutely perfect  rule.  All  ethical  systems  have 
value  as  they  are  conformed  to  this  standard. 
President  Francis  Wayland,  who  acquired  a  na- 
tional reputation,  not  only  as  a  college  adminis- 
trator but  as  a  teacher  of  Moral  Science,  gave  ut- 
terance to  his  high  appreciation  of  the  moral  in- 
fluence of  the  Scriptures  in  these  positive  words, 
"  That  the  truths  of  the  Bible  have  the  power  of 
awakening  an  intense  moral  feeling  in  man  under 
every  variety  of  character,  learned  or  ignorant, 
civilized  or  savage;  that  they  make  bad  men  good, 
and  send  a  pulse  of  healthful  feeling  through  all 
the  domestic,  civil  and  social  relations;  that  they 


THE  BIBLE  59 

teach  men  to  love  right  and  hate  wrong,  and  to 
seek  each  other's  welfare,  as  the  children  of  one 
common  Parent;  that  they  control  the  baleful  pas- 
sions of  the  human  heart,  and  thus  make  men 
proficient  in  the  science  of  self-government;  and 
finally,  that  they  teach  men  to  aspire  after  a  con- 
formity to  a  Being  of  infinite  holiness,  and  fill 
them  with  hopes  infinitely  more  purifying,  more 
exalted,  more  suited  to  their  nature,  than  any  other 
which  this  world  has  ever  known,  are  facts  as  in- 
controvertible as  the  laws  of  philosophy  or  the 
demonstrations  of  mathematics."  And  Thomas 
Jefferson  frankly  declared,  "  Of  all  the  systems  of 
morality,  ancient  or  modern,  which  have  come 
under  my  observation,  none  appear  to  me  so  pure 
as  that  of  Jesus."  Again  he  said,  "  I  have  always 
said,  and  always  will  say,  that  the  studious 
perusal  of  the  Sacred  Volume  will  make  better 
citizens,  better  fathers  and  better  husbands." 

All  ethnic  religions  have  had  their  moral  teach- 
ings. It  has  been  said  that  it  is  not  difficult  to 
find  single  threads  in  these  religions  which  faintly 
suggest  the  cloth  of  gold  found  in  the  ethical 
precepts  of  the  Gospels.  The  teachings  of  Con- 
fucius, for  example,  contain  what  Is  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  "  the  golden  rule,"  which  reads, 
"  Do  not  do  unto  others  what  you  would  not  have 
them  do  to  you,"  a  mere  negative  prohibition. 


6o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

which  would  produce  a  race  of  ciphers,  and  would 
justify  a  man  in  finding  his  chief  cause  for  grati- 
tude to  God,  in  that  he  had  done  no  harm  in  the 
world,  but  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  positive 
injunction  of  Christianity,  which  would  fill  life 
with  a  benevolent  helpfulness  and  an  abounding 
service.  Meroz  was  cursed  because  it  came  not 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord.  There  were  seven  thou- 
sand men  in  Israel,  who  had  not  bowed  the  knee 
to  Baal,  but  their  virtue  was  a  negative  quantity. 
They  did  nothing  to  make  themselves  publicly 
known  as  on  the  Lord's  side,  or  to  comfort  and 
support  his  prophet.  It  is  impossible  to  construct 
a  useful  life  and  a  worthy  and  acceptable  char- 
acter out  of  mere  negatives.  The  doom  of  the 
final  judgment,  as  foretold  by  Christ,  was  pro- 
nounced upon  those  who  "  did  it  not,"  while  eter- 
nal blessedness  is  to  be  the  reward  of  the  actively 
obedient  and  sympathetically  helpful  to  God's 
needy  ones.  But  the  so-called  moralities  of  other 
religions  are  worse  than  negative;  they  are  crude 
and  often  offensive  in  comparison  with  the  pure 
and  lofty  teachings  of  the  Bible.  A  comparison 
between  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Bible  and  the 
philosophic  ethics  of  Greece  and  Rome  has  been 
frequently  made,  and  discloses  but  slight  resem- 
blances, and  at  the  same  time  enormous  contrasts. 
Romanes  pronounces  the  latter  often  "  absurd  " 


THE  BIBLE  6i 

In  the  judgment  of  reason  and  "  shocking  to  the 
moral  sense." 

It  is  true  that  there  is  progress  in  the  Scrip- 
tures in  their  ethical  teachings,  as  well  as  in  their 
doctrinal  teachings.  There  is  a  basis  of  truth  for 
the  statement  of  Dr.  Newman  Smyth,  though  it 
is  put  so  strongly  that  by  many  persons  it  is  cer- 
tain to  be  misunderstood,  and  leave  an  utterly  er- 
roneous impression.  He  says,  "  The  morality  of 
the  Old  Testament  was  incomplete,  in  many  re- 
spects defective,  and  neither  in  its  outward  sanc- 
tions nor  its  inward  motives  a  final  morality  for 
man;  yet  it  was  real  morality,  striving  towards 
better  things,  growing  from  a  genuine  ethical  root 
into  the  light  and  fruitfulness  of  the  coming  sea- 
son of  divine  grace.  The  method  of  the  morality 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  educational  and  progres- 
sive; its  whole  character  Is  preparatory  and  proph- 
etic." Such  language  inevitably  leads  to  a  false 
underestimate  of  the  character  of  the  moral  teach- 
ings of  God's  ancient  Scriptures.  Whatever  may 
have  been  their  Incompleteness,  they  had  upon 
them  the  stamp  of  the  divine  approval  and  author- 
ship, and  were  fully  sufficient  to  lead  men  to  obedi- 
ence and  fellowship  with  God,  and  to  a  godly 
life.  The  legislation  of  Moses  In  the  matter  of 
divorce,  referred  to  In  the  Gospels,  was  not,  as  is 
sometimes  supposed.  In  favor  of  a  loosening  of 


62     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  marriage  bond,  and  an  instance  of  immoral 
legislation,  but  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  tighten- 
ing and  protecting  the  marriage  bond,  and  making 
divorce  more  difficult,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
original  primal  relationship,  which  made  of  twain 
one  flesh,  not  to  be  put  asunder,  was  reasserted  in 
all  its  sanctity.  No  intelligent  reader  of  the  Old 
Testament  can  dispute  the  fact  that  the  whole 
tendency  and  drift  of  its  teachings  were  positively 
and  only  ethical.  They  produced  saints,  not  only 
in  name  but  in  reality,  saints  who  feared  God  and 
loved  his  commandments,  who  hated  iniquity,  who 
"  wrought  righteousness  and  obtained  promises." 
An  eminent  American  preacher,  when  called 
to  preach  before  a  University  audience,  chose  for 
his  text  the  words  of  the  prophet  Micah,  "  What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly  and 
to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God," 
and  he  found  in  them  the  whole  duty  of  man,  his 
duty  towards  God  and  his  duty  towards  his  fel- 
low man.  They  contained  in  his  judgment  a 
complete  moral  code,  with  no  incompleteness  and 
no  defectiveness.  Men  were  exhorted  in  the 
ante-Christian  era  to  "  mark  the  perfect  man  and 
behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is 
peace,"  implying  that  the  moral  light  of  that  olden 
time  was  sufficient  to  produce  upright  and  godly 
examples  worthy  of  study  and  imitation.     Again 


THE  BIBLE  63 

it  was  said,  "  Thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward 
parts,  and  in  the  hidden  part  thou  shalt  make  me 
to  know  wisdom,"  and  again,  "  Who  shall  ascend 
into  the  hill  of  the  Lord,  who  shall  stand  in  his 
holy  place?  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure 
heart."  Inward  purity  and  outward  obedience, 
inward  motives  that  were  holy  and  outward  sanc- 
tions approved  of  God,  were  alike  demanded  in 
the  accepted  worshiper.  How  often  were  men 
told  by  God's  servants  that  He  desired  not  sacri- 
fice, and  was  not  pleased  even  with  thousands  of 
rams,  with  the  empty,  even  excessive  observance  of 
an  outward  ritual,  but  with  a  broken  spirit  and  a 
contrite  heart.  These  were  God's  delight.  Who, 
even  in  our  day,  has  a  deeper  insight  into  the  true 
nature  of  sin,  and  the  nature  of  spiritual  worship, 
than  that  Old  Testament  saint  who  under  the  deep 
consciousness  of  his  guilt,  cried  out,  "  Against 
Thee,  Thee  only  have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil 
in  thy  sight,''  and  looked  above  his  sin  as  a  mere 
violation  of  human  moral  law,  and  saw  in  it  a  blow 
aimed  at  the  moral  government  of  the  universe, 
and  at  the  known  will  of  Him  who  sits  upon  Its 
throne?  Such  a  conception  of  the  guilt  and  na- 
ture of  sin  is  not  too  frequent  even  in  this  morally 
enlightened  age.  A  moral  system  that  had  em- 
blazoned upon  its  central  page  and  clothed  with 
divine  authority  and  supernatural  sanctity,  the  ten 


64     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

great  commandments,  including  reverence  for  the 
one  personal  God,  the  prohibition  of  all  substi- 
tutes in  his  place,  of  whatever  kind,  the  One, 
whose  unquestioned  prerogative  it  is  to  dispense 
justice  to  all  who  hate  Him,  and  mercy  to  those 
who  love  Him ;  whose  name  is  to  be  sacredly  hon- 
ored and  adored;  a  holy  regard  for  his  Sabbath; 
the  sanctity  of  parental  authority  and  the  family 
life;  a  conscientious  respect  for  the  life,  the  rights, 
the  property,  the  good  name  of  all  men,  not  only 
the  forbidding  of  graft,  oppression,  unchastity, 
untruthfulness,  robbery,  but  even  of  the  Inward 
coveting  of  whatever  is  not  one's  own,  must  have 
had  in  it  elements  of  permanence  and  universal 
application.  When  men  boast  that  they  have 
outgrown  the  Old  Testament  teachings  and  are 
living  in  a  new  and  enlightened  period  of  the 
world's  history,  it  may  be  replied  confidently  that 
there  is  abundant  evidence  all  about  us  that  the 
world  has  not  yet  lived  up  to  the  moral  standard 
proclaimed  by  the  prophets  and  teachers  of  the 
Jewish  nation. 

It  should  be  added  that  those  teachings  were 
preeminently  social  in  their  application,  and  had 
to  do  with  the  community  life  and  the  national 
life  and  conditions  as  well  as  with  the  life  of  the 
Individual.  Modern  conditions  are  directing  the 
attention  of  preachers  anew  to  the  fearless  utter- 


THE  BIBLE  6s 

anccs  of  their  God-called  and  God-inspired  pred- 
ecessors, which  are  as  applicable  and  necessary 
at  the  present  time  as  they  were  in  the  days  of 
old,  indeed  which  seem  as  if  they  were  spoken 
especially  for  our  day,  when  conditions  are  strik- 
ingly analogous.  No  message  is  more  modern 
than  this  one  of  ancient  times,  that  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation  is  dependent  upon  the  righteousness 
of  the  nation.  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation, 
but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people."  No  prog- 
ress has  been  made  beyond  the  old  condition  of  a 
nation's  glory,  when  "  Mercy  and  truth  are  met 
together,  and  righteousness  and  peace  have  kissed 
each  other."  It  is  as  true  of  the  Old  Testament 
in  the  twentieth  century  as  it  was  in  the  first  cen- 
tury that  "  Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God  is 
also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  correction,  for 
reproof,  for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness, 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  complete,  furnished 
completely  unto  every  good  work." 

The  striking  language  of  Matthew  Arnold,  In 
"  Literature  and  Dogma,"  cannot  be  forgotten 
or  disputed, — "  As  long  as  the  world  lasts  all 
who  want  to  make  progress  in  righteousness  will 
come  to  Israel  for  inspiration  as  to  the  people 
who  have  had  the  sense  of  righteousness  most 
glowing  and  strongest,  and  In  hearing  and  reading 
the  words  Israel  has  uttered  for  us,  carers  for 


66     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

conduct  will  find  a  glow  and  a  force  they  could 
find  nowhere  else.  As  well  Imagine  a  man  with 
a  sense  for  sculpture  not  cultivating  It  by  the  help 
of  the  remains  of  Greek  art,  or  a  man  with  a 
sense  for  poetry  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help  of 
Homer  and  Shakespeare,  as  a  man  with  a  sense 
for  conduct  not  cultivating  It  by  the  help  of  the 
Bible.  .  .  .  Greece  was  the  lifter  up  to  the 
nations  of  the  banner  of  art  and  science,  as  Israel 
was  the  lifter  up  of  the  banner  of  righteousness." 
This  discussion  of  the  character  of  the  moral 
teachings  of  the  Old  Testament  does  not  Imply 
that  Christ  has  not  given  to  morality  a  fuller, 
deeper  and  more  spiritual  meaning.  He  de- 
nounced the  formalism,  the  shallowness,  the  In- 
sincerity of  his  time.  He  demolished  the  accre- 
tions and  misinterpretations,  which  In  the  degen- 
erate years  had  attached  themselves  to  the  rules 
of  conduct  and  of  life.  But  He  came  not  to  de- 
stroy the  law  or  the  prophets,  but  to  fulfill,  not  only 
to  fulfill  the  Old  Testament  types  and  Messianic 
predictions  pertaining  to  Himself,  but  to  fill  out 
In  distinct  and  visible  outline,  by  his  teaching  and 
his  example,  the  moral  and  spiritual  command- 
ments which  his  generation  had  received  from 
the  fathers.  The  Old  Testament  does  not  stand 
alone.  It  finds  Its  Illumination  and  Illustration 
In   the  New.     As  has  been  said,   "  the  New  Is 


THE  BIBLE  67 

concealed  in  the  Old,  and  the  Old  is  revealed  in 
the  New."  There  is  no  contradiction,  but  a  ful- 
lillment,  a  rounding  out,  a  completion,  a  new  and 
deeper  spiritual  emphasis.  Christ  laid  special 
emphasis  not  upon  the  act,  but  upon  the  spirit, 
which  lies  behind  the  act,  and  may  never  find 
expression  in  outward  conduct.  Hatred  is  mur- 
der, and  lust  is  adultery.  Morality  is  too  often 
regarded  as  a  mere  matter  of  conduct.  The 
moral  man,  it  is  thought,  is  the  man  who  abstains 
from  wrongdoing,  who  is  guilty  of  no  violation 
of  legal  enactment  or  moral  precept.  That  is  as 
far  as  the  judgment  of  men  can  go  with  its  narrow 
vision.  But  Christ  teaches  that  there  is  immo- 
rality of  the  soul,  which  lies  beneath  the  gaze  of 
man's  eyes,  which  only  the  eye  of  God  can  see. 
This  is  the  true  standard  of  judgment  and  of  life. 
Ordinary  morality  may  make  better  citizens  in 
the  Republic,  but  it  does  not  go  deep  enough  to 
qualify  for  citizenship  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  moral  code  of  Christ  may  be  said  to  be 
contained  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which 
men  who  little  comprehend  its  searching,  pene- 
trating, revealing  character,  sometimes  say  "  is 
good  enough  Gospel  for  me,"  thinking  thereby 
to  declare  their  independence  of  the  Gospel,  which 
contains  a  sacrificial  death  and  the  offer  of  par- 
doning grace.     If  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is 


68      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  only  Gospel  which  the  world  possesses,  there 
is  no  hope  for  it,  for  it  is,  in  very  truth,  a  new 
and  resplendent  law  of  life,  which  while  it  reveals 
Christ's  perfect  standard,  reveals  at  the  same 
time  the  utter  insufficiency  of  man's  conformity  and 
obedience.  It  is  a  new  schoolmaster  to  lead  every 
thoughtful  man  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  trust 
in  his  perfect  obedience  and  offer  of  eternal  life. 
It  makes  a  demand  for  virtues  which  are  not  wont 
to  be  comprised  in  the  world's  category,  and  pro- 
claims the  universal  law  of  perfect,  required  man- 
hood, and  at  the  same  time  discloses  "  the  touch- 
stone of  every  social  and  political  order."  Pov- 
erty of  spirit,  meaning  a  humble  consciousness  of 
spiritual  need,  penitence  and  meekness  of  soul, 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  or  justice, 
which  means  a  passion  for  the  doing  of  God's 
will  in  heart  and  life,  mercifulness  like  the  divine, 
including  compassion  as  well  as  forgiveness,  in- 
ward purity  which  allies  a  man  to  God,  and  con- 
tains the  assurance  of  eternal  fellowship  with  Him, 
the  ability  to  live  at  peace  with  all  men,  and  to 
persuade  all  men  to  live  at  peace  with  one  an- 
other, avoiding  all  oppression  and  wrong,  and  so 
to  be  the  sons  of  God,  and  help  to  realize  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  angelic  prophecy,  when  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God  was  born  into  the  world,  and 
joy  in  the  midst  of  persecution  bravely  endured 


THE  BIBLE  69 

for  righteousness'  sake, —  these,  these  are  the  re- 
quired credentials  of  the  subjects  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, these  are  the  beatitudes  of  those  who  would 
be  his  followers,  these  are  the  characteristics  of 
those  who  would  live  according  to  the  standard 
of  his  moral  teachings.  And  then  He  goes  on 
to  enjoin  upon  his  hearers  to  be  "  perfect  as  God 
is  perfect,"  and  closes  his  sermon  with  the  one 
just  criterion  of  all  life,  "  by  their  fruits  they 
should  be  known."  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  peo- 
ple were  astonished  at  his  teaching,  and  wondered 
as  He  ceased  and  came  down  from  the  mount. 

John  Stuart  Mill  boldly  affirmed:  *'  Not  even 
now  could  it  be  easy,  even  for  an  unbeliever,  to 
find  a  better  translation  of  the  rule  of  virtue  from 
the  abstract  into  the  concrete,  than  to  endeavor 
so  to  live  that  Christ  would  approve  of  our  life." 

This,  then,  briefly  was  Christ's  ethical  standard 
of  life  and  character,  the  like  of  which  the  world 
had  never  seen,  and  of  which  the  moralists  and 
philosophers  among  men  had  never  even  dreamed. 
And  yet  Christ  left  to  the  world  not  a  code  of 
morals  simply,  but  a  life.  He  illustrated  his  pure 
and  sublime  moral  teaching  by  his  perfect  ex- 
ample. He  lived  what  He  taught,  and  taught 
by  his  life,  and  to  his  example  all  human  life  is 
to  be  conformed.  All  students  who  aspire  to 
know  that  which  is  highest  and  best  in  character 


70      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

and  life,  and  to  realize  it  in  themselves  and  in  the 
world,  must  sit  at  the  feet  of  "  the  Lord  and  Mas- 
ter of  us  all,"  and  as  they  catch  his  spirit,  and 
imitate  his  example,  and  walk  in  his  footsteps, 
civilization  is  to  be  advanced,  social  evils  are  to 
be  eradicated,  social  conditions  are  to  be  made 
perfect,  righteousness  and  peace  are  to  kiss  each 
other,  and  the  glory  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  to  be  brought  in.  Well  has  John  Morley 
spoken  of  "  the  volcanic  elements  that  slumber  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount." 

Rev.  J.  Bradford  Thomson,  in  his  volume  en- 
titled "  Central  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  de- 
clares, "  But  the  fact  is  that  the  ethics  of  Chris- 
tianity did  not  come  from  man  but  to  man,  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  professed  a  divine  authority  for 
his  revelations,  and  that,  after  all,  what  gives 
Christian  morality  its  true  power  is  its  actual  em- 
bodiment in  Christ  Himself,  and  the  special  mo- 
tive to  aspiration  and  obedience  which  He  fur- 
nished in  his  voluntary  devotion  to  the  cross  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind."  Again  he  says,  "  The 
New  Testament  is  a  trumpet-call,  summoning  all 
who  acknowledge  its  authority  to  aspiration, 
progress  and  eminence  in  goodness."  A  poet  has 
finely  expressed  the  magnetic  power  of  the  teach- 
ing and  life  of  Christ  in  these  lines: 


THE  BIBLE  71 

"Thou  art  the  great  completion  of  my  soul, 

The  blest  fulfillment  of  its  deepest  need; 
When  self-surrendered  to  thy  dear  control, 
It  enters  into  liberty  indeed. 
Thy  love,  a  genial   law, 
Its  very  aim  doth  draw 
Within  its  holy  range,  and  sweetly  lure 
Its  longing  toward  the  beautiful  and  pure." 

Ethical  Christianity,  it  will  be  noticed,  stands  in 
striking  contrast  also  with  all  other  moral  sys- 
tems in  that  it  furnishes  an  adequate  dynamic  for 
its  own  realization. 

In  "  Supernatural  Religion,"  a  book  which  was 
intended  to  be  a  fatal  assault  on  the  Christian 
faith,  it  was  nevertheless  confessed,  "  The  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  carried  morality  to  the  sublimest  point 
attained  or  attainable  by  humanity.  The  influ- 
ence of  his  spiritual  religion  has  been  rendered 
doubly  great  by  the  unparalleled  purity  and  eleva- 
tion of  his  own  character."  Mr.  Lecky,  though 
an  enemy  of  evangelical  Christianity,  has  declared, 
"  It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  present  to 
the  world  an  ideal  character  which  through  all 
the  changes  of  eighteen  centuries  has  filled  the 
hearts  of  men  with  an  impassioned  love,  and  has 
shown  itself  capable  of  acting  in  all  ages,  nations, 
temperaments  and  conditions;  has  not  only  been 
the  highest  pattern  of  virtue,  but  the  highest  in- 
centive to  its  practice;  and  has  exerted  so  deep  an 


72      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

influence  that  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  simple 
record  of  three  short  years  of  active  life  has  done 
more  to  regenerate  and  to  soften  mankind  than 
all  the  disquisitions  of  philosophers,  and  all  the 
exhortations  of  moralists."  And  Mr.  J.  Brierley, 
an  English  author,  whose  interpretation  of  the 
facts  and  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  fre- 
quently calls  for  a  sharp  dissent,  nevertheless  says 
in  "  Religion  and  Experience:  "  "  As  against  all 
that  had  gone  before,  or  was  outside,  we  have 
here  [in  Christianity]  a  religion  that  was,  for 
one  thing,  through  and  through  ethical;  that  for 
another,  possessed  apart  from  its  precepts  a  unique 
source  of  stimulus;  and  that  for  a  third  thing,  set 
its  inspired  ethic  working  not  amongst  the  philos- 
ophers, amongst  the  elite,  but  amongst  the  ob- 
scurest and  most  neglected  portions  of  humanity." 
It  should  be  added  that  the  ethical  principles 
of  Christ  found  fresh  and  consistent  expression 
in  the  teachings  of  his  apostles.  As  the  follow- 
ers and  servants  of  Christ  men  were  exhorted  to 
do  "  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart."  Whatso- 
ever things  were  "  true,  honest,  just,  pure,  lovely 
and  of  good  report,"  these  things  were  to  govern 
thought  and  control  action.  Christ  was  exalted 
as  "  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life,"  and  his 
disciples  everywhere  were  to  be  his  "  living  epis- 
tles."    Somebody  has  said  "  the  ethics  of  Paul 


THE  BIBLE  73 

and  John  and  Christ  are  quite  as  worthy  of  study 
as  the  ethics  of  Schopenhauer  and  Nietzsche." 
He  might  have  truthfully  added  the  names  of 
Aristotle  and  Plato,  Kant  and  Hegel,  Spencer  and 
Mill,  and  all  other  teachers  ancient  and  modern. 

The  Epistles  are  plainly  the  unfolding  of  the 
truth  that  was  taught  in  germinal  form  in  the  Gos- 
pels, and  were  a  manifest  fulfillment  of  the  dis- 
tinct promise  of  Christ  to  his  disciples  of  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  who  should  "  lead  them  into  all 
the  truth,"  emphatically  the  truth,  the  truth  per- 
taining to  Himself  and  his  kingdom,  and  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  his  followers;  else  Christ's 
promise  was  null  and  void,  and  kindled  an  expec- 
tation that  was  false. 

5.  The  fifth  method  of  studying  the  Bible  is 
the  religious  method,  that  is,  the  study  of  the 
Bible  as  a  Book  of  religion,  a  Book  which  con- 
tains certain  great  truths  which  when  coordinated 
constitute  a  system  of  religious  faith  or  a  theology, 
which  Boccaccio  defined  as  "  the  poetry  of  God." 
The  other  methods  which  have  been  considered, 
have  been  found  increasingly  important.  This 
method  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  by  far  the 
most  important  of  all,  the  supreme  method.  As 
a  Book  of  religion  the  Bible  makes  its  strongest, 
its  most  imperative  appeal  to  men,  and  exerts  its 
largest  educational  influence.     The  truest  moral- 


74      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Ity  is  based  upon  a  religious  faith,  and  the  man 
who  looks  upon  the  Bible  as  an  inspired  Book  of 
religion  will  find  every  method  of  study  productive 
of  the  largest  good. 

Sabatier  has  said,  "  Man  Is  incurably  religious," 
and  President  Shurman,  of  Cornell  University, 
characterizes  man  as  "  a  religious  animal,"  and 
says  that  "  without  religion  a  man  is  only  half  a 
man."  The  religious  element  is  as  real  and  as 
integral  in  a  man's  nature  as  the  intellectual,  the 
affectional  and  the  volitional.  Dean  Hodges  in  a 
chapter  on  "  Religion  and  Moral  Training  "  af- 
firms, "  Religion  is  not  an  artificial  thing  grafted 
on  human  nature.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  human 
nature  itself.  It  is  native  to  the  soul.  Man  is 
just  as  essentially  religious  as  he  is  social,  political, 
moral  and  aesthetic  in  nature.  Anthropology  and 
psychology  bear  testimony  to  this  fact."  Educa- 
tion to  be  worthy  of  the  name,  must  include  the 
whole  being.  A  recent  writer  has  said,  "  We  must 
define  the  educated  man  in  terms  of  life,  and  not 
of  some  scholastic  experience.  And  we  must  de- 
fine him  in  terms  of  the  whole  of  life.  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln  were  educated  men,  though  they 
had  little  experience  of  the  school.  The  educated 
man  is  a  rounded  character,  well  adjusted  by  na- 
ture and  by  training  to  the  world  in  which  he  is 
called  to  live.     He  has  learned  self-mastery,  con- 


THE  BIBLE  75 

sideration  for  the  rights  of  others  and  the  final 
art,  that  schools  so  often  fail  to  teach,  of  know- 
ing how  to  learn  and  keep  on  learning.  Knowl- 
edge that  is  applied  to  life  and  is  increased  in 
using,  sympathy  that  is  ever  awake  and  active  as 
a  motive  power  for  action,  humility  and  curiosity 
that  deepen  and  broaden  the  soul  in  following 
out  the  thoughts  of  God, —  these  are  elements  of 
the  education  we  desire  for  all  men  upon  earth." 
The  professional  athlete  is  not  thereby  an  edu- 
cated man.  He  has  developed  strength  of  mus- 
cles and  skill  in  their  use,  but  they  are  only  his 
lower,  his  animal  nature.  He  may  have  acquired 
hardly  the  rudiments  of  an  education.  The  man 
who  has  amassed  knowledge,  the  facts  of  history 
and  of  science,  and  made  himself  familiar  with  the 
problems  of  philosophy,  is  not  necessarily  a  fully 
educated  man,  no  matter  how  many  diplomas  he 
may  carry.  His  knowledge  must  be  converted 
into  wisdom,  and  his  wisdom  into  character,  into 
reverence,  into  humility,  into  purity  of  thought 
and  desire,  into  unselfishness  of  purpose,  into  love 
for  the  things  of  the  spirit  and  a  growing  likeness 
to  that  which  is  highest  and  best  in  personal  being. 
Religious  faith  is  the  ordained  means  of  accom- 
plishing this,  when  it  becomes  dominant  in  the 
soul.  There  is  a  Godward  side  of  man's  nature, 
the  capacity  of  knowing  and  loving  and  serving 


76     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  Infinite  Spirit,  of  having  fellowship  with  the 
personal  Power  above  us  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness. To  neglect  this  is  to  remain  half-edu- 
cated, with  the  possibilities  of  the  soul  unrealized, 
and  the  demands  of  the  soul  unmet,  and  the  des- 
tiny of  the  soul  uncared  for. 

The  Bible  claims  to  be  preeminently  a  religious 
Book,  a  revelation  from  God,  and  its  contents, 
as  well  as  its  influence,  justify  its  claim.  It  is 
called  "  the  joint  product  of  God  and  man,"  "  the 
literature  of  an  inspired  race  that  saw  God  more 
clearly  than  any  other  race."  It  has  been  said 
that  "  when  the  Bible  is  at  its  highest  it  Is  litera- 
ture, and  when  literature  Is  at  Its  highest  It  Is  reve- 
lation." No  education  can  claim  to  be  complete 
which  does  not  recognize  the  Inestimable  Impor- 
tance of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  have  a  large 
and  definite  place  for  their  study,  and  no  education 
can  be  called  Christian,  which  does  not  pay  proper 
respect  to  the  Book  which  Is  the  depository  and 
vehicle  of  Christian  truth.  It  Is  not  enough  to 
study  only  the  history,  or  the  biography,  or  even 
the  literature  of  the  Bible.  That  is  as  far  as  some 
college  studies  go.  But  that  would  be  to  omit 
that  which  Is  fundamental  and  vital.  That  would 
be  to  pay  attention  to  the  prison  walls,  and  Ignore 
the  life  which  dwells  within.  It  is  the  moral  and 
religious  teaching  of  the  Book    (the  one  Is  In- 


THE  BIBLE  77 

separable  from  the  other)  that  gives  to  it  its 
supreme  value  and  sacredness  to  every  rational 
mind. 

There  are  three  sources  of  religious  truth,  viz., 
the  natural  world,  the  inner  life  with  its  instincts 
and  its  conscience,  and  the  Word  of  God.  The 
last  is  a  necessary  supplement  of  the  other  two, 
and  when  rightly  interpreted,  they  confirm  and 
strengthen  each  other's  testimony.  No  sublimer 
utterance  was  ever  penned  than  the  Nineteenth 
Psalm,  which  bursts  forth  in  a  tribute  of  praise 
to  the  material  universe.  "  The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handiwork.  Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and 
night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge.  Their  line 
is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their  words 
to  the  end  of  the  world."  It  is  no  wonder  that 
such  eloquent  language  has  inspired  the  pens  of 
hymn-writers  and  poets,  who  have  caught  some- 
thing of  its  spirit  and  voiced  its  faith  in  the  divine 
Creator  and  resident  Deity  of  the  marvelous 
worlds  which  fill  and  swing  in  the  boundless  space, 
as  against  a  materialistic  and  Godless  evolution, 
which  can  create  nothing,  and  against  which  the 
heart  and  mind  of  men  persistently  rebel.  No 
more  beautiful  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  si- 
lent, voiceless  world  has  appeared  than  that  from 
the  pen  of  Bishop  H.  W.  Warren: 


78      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

"  The  harp  is  ever  singing  to  itself 

In  soft  and  soul-like  sounds  we  cannot  hear; 
The  stars  of  morning  sing,  and  soundless  words 

Make  God's  commands  run  swift  from  sphere  to  sphere. 
Each  flower  is  always  sending  incense  up, 

As  if  in  act  of  holy  worshiping, 
Till  fragrant  earth  is  one  great  altar,  like 

To  heaven  where  saints  their  prayer-filled  censers 
swing. 
The  stars  send  out  a  thousand  rays,  writ  full 

Of  mysteries  we  cannot  read  nor  see. 
Of  histories  so  long  and  going  forth. 

So  vast,  the  volumes  fill  infinity. 
O  Source  Divine  of  things  so  fine  and  high, 

Touch  all  thy  children's  souls  with  power  to  see 
That  vibrant  earth  and  air  and  boundless  sky 

Still  throb  with  immanent  Divinity." 

He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  he  will  hear.  He 
that  hath  eyes  to  see,  he  will  see.  The  testimony 
is  there,  whether  men  recognize  it  or  not,  the  tes- 
timony to  the  infinite  wisdom,  power,  wonderful 
skill,  aesthetic  taste  and  love  of  beauty,  and  the  in- 
finite goodness  of  the  personal  Creator.  Every 
man  who  studies  the  objects  and  laws  of  the  nat- 
ural world,  from  the  most  sublime  to  the  most 
minute,  may  say,  if  he  will,  with  the  ancient  sci- 
entist, "  I  am  thinking  God's  thoughts  after  Him." 
Someone  has  said  beautifully  that  the  Himalayas 
are  only  raised  letters  by  which  God  teaches  his 
blind  children  to  read  the  evidence  of  his  eternal 
power  and  Godhead.     Blessed  are  the  pure   in 


THE  BIBLE  79 

heart  and  the  devout  in  spirit,  for  they  shall  sec 
God  here  as  well  as  hereafter,  in  the  world  of 
nature  as  well  as  in  the  spiritual  heavens.  All 
things  visible  may  incite  to  worship,  even  though 
what  may  be  called  the  higher  and  more  moral 
attributes  of  God  may  not  be  clearly  revealed  in 
them.  It  is  nevertheless  true  as  Dr.  Holmes 
sang,  "  I'hy  glory  Hames  from  sun  and  star,"  or 
as  Browning  phrased  it, 

"  You've  seen  the  world, 
The  beauty,  the  wonder  and  the  power, 
The  shapes  of  things,  their  colors,  lights  and  shades, 
Changes,  surprises, —  and  God  made  It  all: 
For  what?  .  .  .  What's  it  all  about? 
To  be  passed  over,  despised?  or  dwelt  upon, 
Wondered  at?  " 

or  as  Mrs.  Browning  phrased  It  in  lines  still  more 
beautiful  and  positive, 

"  Earth's   crammed    with   Heaven, 
And  every  bush  aflame  with  God, 
But  only  he  who  sees  takes  off  his  shoes." 

In  the  universal  conscience,  the  inner  light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world, 
there  is  the  instinct  or  intuition  of  God,  the  knowl- 
edge of  right  and  wrong,  the  testimony  to  the 
moral  universe  and  the  supreme  Governor  of  all, 
including  every  moral  being,  the  hidden,  almost 
irrepressible  and  deathless  longing  after  the  In- 


8o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

finite  Spirit.  As  another  has  said,  "  The  listen- 
ing ear  of  the  race  can  never  cease  to  hearken  to 
a  Voice  that  speaks  out  of  the  silences  beyond  the 
range  of  time  and  sense."  It  is  the  deepest  fact 
of  human  nature.  "  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thy- 
self, and  we  find  no  rest  until  we  find  it  in  Thee." 
The  Christian  Father  who  uttered  those  words, 
voiced  the  cry  of  the  human  race.  The  apostle 
Paul  declares  that  God  has  not  left  Himself  with- 
out a  witness  in  the  inner  spirit  of  all  men, 
"  Which  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their 
hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and 
their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or  else 
excusing  one  another."  That  conscience,  that 
inner  light,  that  law  written  in  the  heart,  that 
longing  after  God,  has  often  been  silenced, 
dimmed,  perverted,  maltreated,  and  made  the 
fruitful  source  of  false  religions,  cruel  faiths, 
abominable  superstitions,  and  immoral  rites. 
"  Men  became  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and 
their  foolish  heart  was  darkened.  They  changed 
the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and  worshiped  and 
served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator."  As 
the  result,  many  of  the  abodes  of  men  have  been 
shrouded  in  darkness,  and  have  been  filled  with 
all  unrighteousness  and  uncleanness,  and  must 
have  the  illumination  of  a  new  and  stronger  light, 
the  guiding  and  directing  influence  of  a  completer 


THE  BIBLE  8i 

and  authenticated  Revelation,  the  regenerating 
and  transforming  power  of  a  divinely  ordained 
Instrumentality. 

That  new  light,  that  authenticated  Revelation, 
that  ordained  Instrumentality  is  the  Book  we  call 
the  Word  of  God.  This  is  the  third  and  neces- 
sary source  of  religious  truth,  completing  and  en- 
ergizing the  other  sources,  and  constituting  the  su- 
preme religious  educational  asset  for  mankind. 
This  Book,  and  this  Book  alone,  contains  the  wis- 
dom that  is  able  to  "  make  men  wise  unto  salva- 
tion and  eternal  life." 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"  Paganism  is  the  work  of  man.  One  can  here 
read  imbecilit)'.  What  do  these  gods,  so  boast- 
ful, know  more  than  other  mortals?  .  .  .  They 
have  made  a  perfect  chaos  of  morals.  There  is 
not  one  among  them  all  who  has  said  anything 
new  in  reference  to  our  future  destiny,  to  the  soul, 
to  the  essence  of  God,  to  the  creation."  Said 
that  skeptical  philosopher  and  moralist,  Rousseau, 
'*  I  will  confess  to  you  that  the  majesty  of  the 
Scriptures  strikes  me  with  admiration,  as  the 
purity  of  the  Gospel  has  its  influence  on  my  heart. 
Peruse  the  works  of  our  philosophers,  with  all 
their  pomp  of  diction,  how  mean,  how  contempti- 
ble, are  they,  compared  with  the  Scripture.  Is  it 
possible  that  a  Book,  at  once  so  simple  and  sub- 


82     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

lime,  should  be  merely  the  work  of  man?  Is  it 
possible  that  the  sacred  Personage  whose  history 
it  contains  should  be  Himself  a  mere  man?  "  The 
language  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  is  so  familiar  as 
hardly  to  need  repetition. 

"  Within  that  awful  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries. 
Happiest  they  of  human  race, 
To  whom  our  God  has  granted  grace 
To  read,  to  fear,  to  hope,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch  and  force  the  way; 
And  better  had  they  ne'er  been  born. 
Who  read  to  doubt,  or  read  to  scorn." 

Such  language  in  endorsement  of  the  Bible  as 
a  Book  of  religion,  coming  from  the  lips  not  of 
professional  preachers  and  teachers,  but  from  the 
lips  of  representative  men  of  other  classes  wide 
apart,  the  great  General,  the  infidel  Philosopher 
and  the  distinguished  Novelist,  may  well  dispose 
our  minds  to  inquire  studiously  as  to  the  teachings 
of  this  incomparable,  cosmopolitan  Book.  It 
may  be  said  to  contain  a  fourfold  revelation. 

I.  The  Bible  contains  a  revelation  of  the  being 
and  character  of  God,  more  complete,  more 
consistent,  more  worthy  of  adoration  than  can  be 
found  anywhere  else.  Whatever  other  fruits  the 
study  of  comparative  religion,  now  much  in  vogue, 
may  yield,  the  Bible's  conception  of  God  tran- 
scends by  an  infinite   distance  all  other  concep- 


THE  BIBLE  83 

tions.  Its  opening  sentence,  "  In  the  beginning 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  surpasses 
in  the  sublimity  of  its  utterance,  in  its  authoritative 
tone,  in  its  assumption  of  positive  knowledge,  and 
in  the  sweep  of  its  influence,  every  other  sentence 
that  was  ever  penned.  A  recent  writer  has  said, 
"  When  this  first  sentence  of  the  Bible  was  writ- 
ten it  was  in  ages  when  men  held  strange  fancies 
and  fables  concerning  the  origin  of  the  world. 
This  sentence  was  in  opposition  to  the  notion  that 
the  world  sprang  into  being  through  chance  or  by 
blind  forces  acting  within  and  without  it,  and  em- 
phasized the  fact  that  it  was  the  product  of  the 
wisdom  and  will  of  a  personal  Being.  Some  an- 
cient conceptions  were  atheistic,  some  pantheistic, 
and  some  polytheistic;  but  this  single,  simple  sen- 
tence sets  forth  the  personality,  eternity,  omnisci- 
ence, omnipotence,  and  spirituality  of  God.  It  ex- 
cludes every  possible  ism  of  error  in  the  human 
conception  of  God."  This  is  the  Bible's  interpre- 
tation of  all  origins,  its  reaffirmation  of  the  teach- 
ing of  natural  theology  as  to  the  wisdom  and  cre- 
ative power  of  the  eternal  Spirit. 

But  the  Bible  does  not  stop  there.  It  completes 
the  perfect  picture  of  the  absolutely  perfect  Being, 
as  infinite  in  holiness  and  love  as  in  wisdom  and 
power,  the  Possessor  of  every  divine  attribute,  the 
Personification   of   every   moral    excellence,    and 


84     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

even  going  so  far  as  to  interpret  Deity  in  the 
terms  of  loving  and  thoughtful  Fatherhood,  and 
declaring  "  there  is  none  beside  Him,"  "  none  be- 
fore Him,"  and  "  none  like  unto  Him."  He  is 
represented  as  "  merciful,"  "  gracious,"  "  long 
suffering,"  "  compassionate,"  "  forgiving  iniquity, 
transgression  and  sin,"  the  divine  "  Shepherd," 
satisfying,  leading,  feeding  and  protecting  his 
flock,  the  Father  of  the  prodigal  son,  waiting  to 
welcome  the  returning  penitent  with  kiss  and  robe 
and  joyful  feast.  And  then  in  order  to  make  the 
portrait  more  real,  more  comprehensible,  more 
resistlessly  attractive  and  commanding.  Revela- 
tion gives  to  the  world  the  story  of  the  incarna- 
tion, a  new  and  unique  life,  human  and  divine, 
beautifully  natural  and  convincingly  supernatural, 
Son  of  man  and  Son  of  God,  "  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh,"  the  living  illustration  of  all  that  is  high- 
est in  manhood  and  all  that  is  essential  in  God- 
hood,  so  that  Christ  could  say,  "  He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  Was  ever  pic- 
ture so  true,  so  real,  so  inspiring,  so  captivating 
to  the  human  heart?  Even  the  infidel,  Rousseau, 
was  lost  in  admiration  as  he  contemplated  it,  and 
his  Infidelity  seemed  almost  to  be  swept  away  by 
the  swelling  tide  of  his  appreciation,  as  the  doubt 
of  Thomas  was  removed  by  the  ocular  evidence  of 
his  Lord's  reality  and  divinity.     He  says,  "  What 


THE  BIBLE  85 

sweetness,  what  purity  in  his  manner!  What  an 
affecting  graccfuhiess  in  his  delivery!  What  sub- 
limity in  his  maxims!  What  profound  wisdom 
in  his  discourses!  What  presence  of  mind,  what 
subtlety,  what  truth  in  his  replies!  How  great 
the  command  over  his  passions!  Where  is  the 
man,  where  the  philosopher,  who  could  so  live, 
and  so  die,  without  weakness,  without  ostenta- 
tion? .  .  .  Yes,  if  the  life  and  death  of  Socrates, 
which  nobody  presumes  to  doubt,  were  those  of  a 
sage,  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  were  those  of  a 
God." 

2.  The  Bible  contains  also  a  revelation  of  man, 
his  character  and  condition  as  a  moral  being,  and 
his  relation  to  the  God  who  made  him.  The 
highest  counsel  of  the  old  Greek  philosopher  to 
his  fellow  man  was,  "  Know  thyself,"  This  was 
the  supreme  business  of  life,  the  Imperative  duty 
of  every  man.  It  was  as  if  he  had  said,  "  The 
unexamined  life  is  not  one  fit  to  be  led  by  man." 
iVIodern  reflection  echoes  the  importance  of  the 
ancient  mandate.  In  Charron  we  read,  "La 
vrayc  science  ct  le  vray  etude  de  rhomme  c'est 
rhomme."  Alexander  Pope  endeavors  to  make 
the  command  doubly  emphatic  by  concentrating 
man's  thought  on  himself,  and  shutting  out  all 
thought  of  Him  who  gave  him  power  to  think. 


86     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

"  Know  then  thyself,  presume  not  God  to  scan ; 
The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 

The  testimony  of  Lotze  is  accepted  by  all  per- 
sons who  are  familiar  with  the  literature  and 
characters  of  the  Bible:  "  For  the  most  faithful 
delineation  of  the  ever-recurring  fundamental 
characteristics  of  human  life,  the  Hebrew  his- 
tories and  hymns  are  imperishable  models."  It 
needs  to  be  remarked  that  no  man  can  know 
himself  in  his  entirety  and  in  his  relations  until  he 
knows  something  of  the  Being  who  brought  him 
into  life,  and  whose  image  he  bears.  It  was  a  flip- 
pant remark  of  Henry  Sidgwick,  if  he  ever  made 
it,  that  "  as  he  grew  older  his  interest  in  what  or 
who  made  the  world  was  altered  into  interest  in 
what  kind  of  a  world  this  is  anyway."  Man  and 
the  world  are  both  profound  secrets,  and  will  re- 
main such,  until  they  are  studied  in  the  light  of 
their  origin,  a  guiding  and  overruling  providence 
and  purpose,  and  their  final  destiny.  The  Bible 
contains  in  some  true  sense  every  man's  biography, 
written  by  an  unprejudiced  and  unerring  hand, 
and  no  man  can  know  himself  until  he  knows  what 
the  Bible  says  about  him.  His  self-knowledge 
may  deceive  him,  and  his  human  biographer  may 
flatter  or  defame  him,  but  the  Bible  reveals  his 
true  image. 

The    Bible   discloses   man's   primal   glory.     It 


THE  BIBLE  87 

tells  him  what  he  can  learn  nowhere  else,  that  he 
was  created  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God. 
Whatever  resemblance  he  may  bear  to  the  animal 
world  about  him,  whatever  true  science  or  science 
falsely  so-called  may  think  as  to  his  classification 
with  forms  of  animal  life,  God  set  him  apart  and 
above  them  all,  and  gave  him  dominion  over  them 
all,  God  breathed  into  him  his  own  spirit  and  en- 
dowed him  with  his  own  intellectual  and  moral 
faculties,  and  man  became  a  living  soul  and  a  son 
of  God.  This  gives  to  him  a  dignity  and  a  glory, 
of  which  science  and  philosophy  know  nothing. 
It  is  not  they  who  have  discovered  him,  but  it  is 
he  who  has  discovered  and  given  birth  to  them, 
and  they  become  his  servants,  the  embodiments 
and  vehicles  of  his  thoughts,  and  the  means  of  his 
growth  and  development. 

President  Henry  Churchill  King  wisely  sug- 
gests; "  If  a  man's  greatest  discovery,  next  to 
the  discovery  of  God,  is  the  discovery  of  himself, 
and  if  the  complete  discovery  of  himself  in  all  his 
spiritual  possibilities  involves  the  discovery  of 
God,  we  may  perhaps  get  a  new  light  on  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  Bible  for  our  spiritual  life,  if  we 
think  of  it  as  an  aid  to  self-discovery." 

By  means  of  man's  moral  nature  and  his  cre- 
ated freedom  it  became  possible  for  man  to  dis- 
obey God,  to  forfeit  his  fellowship  and  glory,  to 


88      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

mar  his  likeness  and  sonship,  and  to  lose  his  peace 
of  soul.  The  Bible  conceals  nothing.  "  Sin  en- 
tered into  the  world,"  we  are  told,  "  and  death 
by  sin."  This  revelation  of  Scripture  is  con- 
firmed by  the  universal  consciousness  of  man. 
"  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray."  It  is  not 
a  new  truth  which  the  Bible  discloses,  but  the  in- 
sistent iteration  and  enforcement  of  a  truth  as  old 
and  as  wide  as  humanity.  To  ignore  it  does  not 
change  the  fact.  Men  may  differ  as  to  the  degree 
of  demerit  and  possible  consequences,  but  sin  is 
here,  an  intruder  in  God's  fair  world,  ever  writing 
its  dark  record  in  unmistakable  characters  upon 
individual  consciousness,  upon  domestic  life,  upon 
social  conditions,  upon  every  page  of  the  book  of 
human  experience.  The  Bible  holds  the  mirror 
up  to  life,  and  reveals  not  only  man's  primal 
glory,  but  his  present  shame  and  weakness,  peril 
and  necessity.  It  presents  no  imaginary  or  over- 
drawn portrait.  Every  thoughtful  man  acknowl- 
edges its  sad  reality  as  true  to  the  life  of  man. 
The  following  obvious  statement  of  fact  is  bor- 
rowed from  Dr.  S.  Parks  Cadman.  "  Religion, 
as  well  as  science,  has  lived  and  will  live  by  the 
certainty  of  its  ideas,  and  these  ideas  are  not 
'  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of,'  but  sterling 
convictions,  which  have  shaped  and  transfigured 
the  whole  fabric  of  Western  civilization." 


THE  BIBLE  89 

3.  The  Bible  contains  the  revelation  of  a  possi- 
ble restoration  of  man  to  union  and  fellowship 
with  God.  It  proclaims  the  offer,  which  would 
be  unspeakably  wonderful,  if  it  was  not  so  famil- 
iar, of  forgiveness  and  peace  through  the  divine 
Christ.  The  voices  of  nature,  though  many  and 
varied,  have  in  them  no  redemptive  note.  The 
conscience  and  moral  judgment  contain  no  atoning 
cross  of  reconciliation  and  pardon,  but  only  words 
of  condemnation.  To  sit  alone  in  court  with  an 
enlightened  conscience  on  the  bench  is  to  be  with- 
out hope.  Conscience  bears  no  olive  branch,  but 
only  a  naked  sword.  Christ  as  a  perfect  example 
only,  resplendent  in  all  the  symmetry  of  a  divine 
manhood,  would  leave  man  far  behind,  a  conspic- 
uous failure,  in  the  struggle  for  perfection  of 
character  and  life.  The  Bible  furnishes  the  one 
means  of  forgiveness  and  the  one  adequate  in- 
spiration for  a  godly  and  acceptable  life,  viz.,  the 
cross  of  Calvary.  "  In  whom  we  have  redemp- 
tion through  his  blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  ac- 
cording to  the  riches  of  his  grace."  It  reveals  a 
two-fold  indwelling,  "  God  in  Christ,  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself,"  and  "  Christ  in  man  the 
hope  of  glory."  So  we  find  in  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  revealed  not  only  the  primal  glory  of  man, 
but  his  final  glory,  not  only  his  primitive  dignity 
in  God's  likeness,  but  his  ultimate  restoration  in 


90      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  likeness  of  Jesus  Christ  through  union  with 
Him.  "  We  shall  be  like  Him,"  says  the  Apos- 
tle, "  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."  Faith  in 
Christ,  submission  to  Christ,  union  with  Christ, 
this  is  the  culminating  truth  of  a  progressive  reve- 
lation, this  is  the  central  fact  in  God's  plan  of  sal- 
vation, this  is  the  method  and  secret  of  a  restored 
manhood.  Unless  a  man  has  learned  this  (and 
he  learns  it  nowhere  outside  of  the  Bible),  there 
is  a  serious  and  fatal  lack  in  his  education.  Not 
only  the  highest  ideal  in  life,  but  the  highest  in- 
centive to  nobility  of  character  and  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed means  for  its  attainment,  are  all  painfully 
wanting.  Well  has  Tennyson,  the  great  inter- 
preter of  God  and  man,  expressed  the  truth  when 
he  sang, 

"  Thou  seemest  human  and  divine, 
The  highest,  holiest  manhood  Thou; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 

Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  thine." 

4.  And  lastly  the  Bible  contains  a  clear  and 
convincing  revelation  of  immortality,  by  which  is 
meant  not  simply  continued  existence  beyond  the 
grave,  but  the  unending  continuance  of  a  blessed 
existence.  The  old  question  is  still  asking  itself, 
as  it  has  been  from  the  beginning,  "  If  a  man  die, 
shall  he  live  again?  "  Science  is  very  busy  to-day, 
endeavoring  to   discover  proof  that  death   does 


THE  BIBLE  91 

not  end  all,  that  the  spirit  survives  the  cessation  of 
the  bodily  functions,  and  goes  on  to  an  endless  ex- 
istence. Matter  it  is  claimed  is  indestructible.  It 
is  a  reasonable  inference  that  personality  survives 
all  change.  Nature  furnishes  many  suggestive 
analogies  of  a  resurrection-life.  The  Ingersoll 
Lectureship  has  been  established  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity to  discover  and  establish  a  scientific  basis 
for  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  doctrine  of 
a  future  life  has  had  a  place  in  some  form  in  all 
ethnic  religions,  in  shadowy  beliefs,  in  religious 
rites,  in  preserved  mummies,  and  even  in  the  faiths 
of  the  most  savage  tribes  and  peoples.  The  In- 
dian has  his  happy  hunting  ground.  The  uni- 
versal longing  has  found  expression  in  gross  forms 
of  reincarnation  and  the  transmigration  of  souls. 
The  hope  has  been  argued  from  the  incomplete- 
ness of  this  life,  which  is  distressingly  full  of  un- 
fulfilled promises,  of  unrealized  plans,  of  blighted 
hopes,  of  buds  that  have  been  broken  off  before 
the  time  of  flower  and  fruit.  The  doctrine  has 
even  been  grounded  in  the  justice  of  the  holy  and 
infinite  Creator.  Tennyson  reasoned  after  this 
manner, 

"Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust; 

Thou  madest  man,  he  knows  not  why; 

He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 
And  Thou  hast  made  him;  Thou  art  just." 


92      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Jouffroy,  a  French  writer,  has  said,  "  Ever}'  man 
feels  within  himself  a  crowd  of  desires  and  facul- 
ties which  this  life  does  not  content;  and  he  would 
deem  himself  very  unhappy,  and  Him  who  has 
made  him  very  unjust,  if  his  destiny  were  never 
to  attain  this  happiness,  this  perfection,  of  which 
he  has  the  idea.  ...  It  is  that  which  unavoidably 
suggests  to  him  thoughts  of  the  other  life;  and 
these  thoughts  once  awakened  in  his  mind,  there 
is  no  more  rest  for  him,  if  the  doubt  remains,  and 
if  no  clear  solution  comes  to  solve  it."  Professor 
John  Fiske,  in  *'  The  Destiny  of  Man,"  says,  "  For 
my  part,  I  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
not  in  the  sense  in  which  I  accept  the  demonstra- 
ble truths  of  science,  but  as  a  supreme  act  of  faith 
in  the  reasonableness  of  God's  work,"  Poets, 
philosophers,  religionists,  scientists,  have  all  been 
lending  a  hand  in  the  advocacy  of  this  great  and 
greatly  desiderated  doctrine  of  a  future  life. 

How  refreshing,  how  heartening,  how  comfort- 
ing, how  satisfying,  it  is  to  turn  away  from  all 
these  conjectures,  and  inferences,  and  blind  rea- 
sonings, which  can  never  bring  rest  and  peace,  and 
listen  to  the  clear,  strong,  positive,  authoritative 
affirmations  of  the  Bible,  and  know  that  here  we 
have  testimony  which  no  doubt  can  shake  and  no 
denial  can  destroy.  In  the  Old  Testament  there 
were  bright  and  morning  stars  whose  light  was 


THE  BIBLE  93 

suflicient  to  comfort  and  sustain  the  souls  of  the 
patriarchs  and  the  people  in  anticipation  of  life's 
hastening  end.  The  prophet  Daniel  declared  with 
unshaken  confidence,  "  And  many  of  them  that 
sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake,  some  to 
everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlast- 
ing contempt.  And  they  that  be  wise  shall  shine 
as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  they  that 
turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  for  ever 
and  ever."  In  these  words  there  is,  in  the  words 
of  an  able  commentator,  "  obvious  reference  to 
the  final  resurrection  of  all  men,  the  just  and  the 
unjust,  the  eternal  joy  of  the  first  and  the  unend- 
ing woe  of  the  second,  and  the  glorious  reward  of 
those  who  had  been  successful  workers  for  right- 
eousness." In  Job,  perhaps  the  oldest  of  all  the 
Biblical  books,  we  read  the  confident  assurance, 
"  For  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that 
He  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day  upon  the  earth :  and 
though  after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body, 
yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God;  whom  I  shall  see 
for  myself,  and  mine  eyes  shall  behold,  and  not 
another."  The  meaning  is  most  apparent.  The 
afflicted  servant  of  God  "  now  turns  for  comfort, 
under  the  harsh  treatment  of  men,  to  his  assured 
belief  in  a  consolatory  truth  of  universal  and 
permanent  importance,  which  he  desires  to  have 
not  only  inscribed  in  a  book,  but  also  more  last- 


94     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

ingly  and  publicly  recorded  by  being  engraven  on 
a  rock.  ...  It  is  therefore  to  his  hope  of  vindi- 
cation in  a  future  life  that  he  here  refers,  encour- 
aging himself  in  the  conviction  that  after  death 
he  should  joyfully  behold  his  ever-living  Vindi- 
cator." In  the  Psalms  we  read,  "  For  thou  wilt 
not  leave  my  soul  in  hell;  neither  wilt  Thou  suffer 
thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption.  Thou  wilt 
show  me  the  path  of  life;  in  thy  presence  is  ful- 
ness of  joy;  at  thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures 
for  evermore."  Although  these  striking  words, 
as  interpreted  by  both  Peter  and  Paul,  refer  pri- 
marily to  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  the  thought 
of  the  Psalmist  is  naturally  expanded  to  include 
himself  and  all  true  servants  of  God,  who  know 
the  path  of  life,  which  Inevitably  leads  to  God's 
presence  and  communion  with  Him,  "  and  from 
that  springs,  of  necessity,  the  idea  of  immortality." 
It  would  seem  that  the  ancient  Psalmist  antici- 
pated the  thought  of  the  writer  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians  when  he  said,  "  For  if  we  believe  that 
Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which 
sleep  in  Jesus,  will  God  bring  with  Him."  Of 
the  quotation  from  the  Psalm  Perowne  says,  "  In 
the  utterance  of  this  confident  persuasion  and  hope, 
David  was  carried  beyond  himself.  He  spake  as 
a  prophet,  knowing  that  God  had  promised  of 
the  fruit  of  his  body  to  raise  up  Christ  to  sit  on 


THE  BIBLE  95 

his  throne.  The  hope  of  his  own  immortality 
was  based  upon,  and  bound  up  in,  the  life  of  Him 
who  was  at  once  his  Son  and  his  Lord."  Only 
one  other  passage  needs  to  be  quoted  of  those 
found  in  the  Old  Testament.  "  As  for  me  I  will 
behold  thy  face  in  righteousness;  I  shall  be  satis- 
fied when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness,"  words  which 
have  brought  inexpressible  comfort  to  minds  per- 
plexed by  questionings  as  to  the  future  state. 
Perowne  declares  these  words  are  not  to  be  un- 
derstood as  meaning,  "  When  I  wake  up  from 
sleep,"  nor,  "  When  I  find  deliverance  from  the 
present  night  of  sorrow  and  suffering.  ...  I  can- 
not doubt  that  the  reference  is  to  a  resurrection." 
The  Psalmist  seems  to  have  anticipated  again  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament,  where  we  are 
told,  "  We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is." 

It  may  be  added  that  the  translation  of  Enoch 
and  the  translation  of  Elijah  were  a  part  of  the 
sacred  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  as  firmly  be- 
lieved as  any  recorded  events  in  that  history,  and 
must  have  added  their  strong  and  unique  testi- 
mony to  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life. 

Rather  brilliant  "  morning  stars "  we  have 
found  these  passages  to  be.  We  read  them  to- 
day at  every  Christian  burial.  Yet  they  fade 
away  in  the  fuller  light  and  glory  of  the  teaching 


96     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake.  It  will 
be  sufficient  to  quote  a  few  of  the  utterances  of 
Christ  as  to  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life.  He  that  believeth 
in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live." 
"  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  '*  Marvel 
not  at  this;  for  the  hour  is  coming,  in  which  all 
that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and 
shall  come  forth,  they  that  have  done  good  unto 
the  resurrection  of  life;  and  they  that  have  done 
evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation."  Who 
can  ever  forget  or  distrust  the  most  beautiful 
and  consolatory  words  that  were  ever  spoken  by 
lips  human  or  divine,  that  carried  unspeakable 
comfort  and  strength  to  the  hearts  of  the  sorrow- 
ing disciples,  who  listened  to  them,  and  have  been 
carrying  comfort  and  strength  to  the  hearts  of  the 
sorrowing  and  dying  ever  since,  and  can  never  lose 
their  power?  "  In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions,  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told 
you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if 
I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you  I  will  come  again 
and  receive  you  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am, 
there  ye  may  be  also." 

Christ  believed  in  a  future  life.  He  foretold 
his  own  resurrection,  and  accomplished  it  to  es- 
tablish faith  in  Himself  and  his  message.  The 
disciples    believed    in    it,    and    went    everywhere 


THE  BIBLE  97 

preaching  Christ  and  the  resurrection.  There  is 
no  more  induhitable  fact  in  all  history,  ancient  or 
modern.  There  is  no  more  trustworthy  truth  in 
the  axioms  of  science  or  philosophy.  A  faith  in 
immortality  rests  upon  the  word,  the  veracity  of 
the  Son  of  God.  Christ  *'  brought  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light  in  the  Gospel."  The  New 
Testament  is  filled  with  the  mighty,  transforming 
power  of  the  world  to  come.  That  which  may 
have  seemed  to  some  dimly  revealed  before,  now 
shines  in  the  light  of  a  thousand  suns.  What  the 
world  was  seeking  and  longing  to  know  for  a 
certainty,  is  now  a  part  of  the  certified  knowledge 
of  mankind.  The  grave  has  been  illuminated 
and  its  darkness  dispelled.  It  is  no  longer  a 
closed  tomb,  but  an  open  doorway.  Death,  to 
use  the  strong  language  of  Scripture,  has  been 
"  abolished,"  and  the  certain  knowledge  of  this 
blessed  fact  is  contained  in  the  Bible. 

Some  persons  profess  with  great  inconsistency 
to  repudiate  the  Bible  and  its  teachings,  and  yet 
are  indebted  to  it  for  their  highest  conceptions  of 
morality,  and  for  all  they  know  of  God  and  a  fu- 
ture life. 

The  following  words  are  from  the  pen  of  the 
English  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  already 
quoted,  J.  Bradford  Thomson,  "  A  nature  with 
such  requirements  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  pro- 


98      THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

fessions  and  promises  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 
Is  it  likely  that  man,  so  constituted,  will  turn  aside 
from  the  revelations  of  Christianity,  and  adopt 
in  preference  the  teaching  of  the  materialist  and 
atheist,  according  to  whom  man  perishes  like  the 
brutes  and  is  no  more;  a  foam-fleck  upon  the  rush- 
ing river  of  universal  being?  Or  will  he  not 
rather  exclaim,  God  made  the  soul  for  immortality, 
and  appointed  immortality  for  the  soul?  Here  is 
found  the  true  and  longed-for  rest,  here  the  strong 
and  sustaining  hope."  What  Milton  thought 
should  be  true  of  every  great  book,  is  preeminently 
characteristic  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  "  the  pre- 
cious life-blood  of  a  master  spirit,  embalmed  and 
treasured  up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life." 

Here  then  we  have  the  fourfold  revelation  of 
the  Bible,  viz.,  God  the  Infinite  Spirit,  the  su- 
preme Object  of  worship  and  affection;  man,  his 
true  character,  his  origin  and  destiny;  the  possible 
union  through  Christ  between  man  and  his  Maker, 
and  a  real  spiritual  fellowship  with  Him;  and  the 
doctrine  of  a  future  life,  established  beyond  a 
question  or  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Without  the 
light  which  the  Bible  sheds  on  these,  the  greatest 
of  all  truths,  the  world  would  be  still  groping  in 
darkness.  An  education  which  does  not  include 
these  verities  of  knowledge  would  be  deplorably 
incomplete,  and  inadequate  to  meet  the  demands 


THE  BIBLE  99 

of  the  moral  soul.  The  mind  which  does  not  wel- 
come and  appropriate  these  vital,  transcendent 
truths,  will  hav^e  empty  spaces  which  no  amount  of 
secular  knowledge  can  fill,  and  a  diminished  life 
which  must  occasion  everlasting  regret.  This  is 
the  standard  of  fullness  of  knowledge  and  com- 
pleteness of  life,  as  Christ  affirmed,  "  To  know 
Thee  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom 
Thou  hast  sent;  this  is  life  eternal." 

It  is  because  of  this  supreme  characteristic  of 
the  Bible,  viz.,  that  it  is  the  veritable  Word  of 
God,  an  inspired  and  authoritative  revelation  of 
his  character  and  will,  a  complete  and  final  mes- 
sage of  grace  and  salvation  to  all  the  generations 
of  mankind,  commanded  by  Christ  to  be  made 
known  in  all  the  world  to  every  creature,  that  Bible 
Societies  have  been  established  and  generously 
supported  in  Christian  lands.  It  is  interesting 
to  know  that  in  the  last  year  in  order  to  carry  out 
the  divine  commission  and  to  meet  in  some  meas- 
ure the  world-wide  need,  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can Bible  Societies  have  published  and  distributed 
in  hundreds  of  languages  between  ten  and  twelve 
million  copies  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  whole 
or  in  parts.  Such  a  work,  continued  from  year 
to  year,  will  prove  to  be  no  small  contribution  to 
the  effort  to  dispel  the  darkness,  the  ignorance  and 
superstitions  of  men,  and  shed  abroad  the  light  of 


100     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Him  who  is  the  Light  of  the  world,  and  in  whose 
name  every  knee  shall  eventually  bow. 

The  bearing  of  this  paper  is  more  than  per- 
sonal. It  has  to  do  not  only  with  man  as  an  in- 
dividual, a  moral  and  intellectual  unit,  and  with 
the  necessary  completeness  of  his  education,  but 
it  has  to  do  with  man  as  a  social  being,  a  member 
of  society  and  a  citizen  of  the  Republic.  The  ed- 
ucation which  a  man  needs,  and  must  have  for 
himself,  society  and  the  nation  need,  and  must 
have  for  themselves.  The  use  of  the  Bible, 
therefore,  is  intimately  connected  with  the  good 
morals  of  the  community,  with  the  purity  of  the 
social  life,  with  the  stability  and  perpetuity  of 
good  government,  and  with  the  progress  of  the 
race.  It  was  John  Milton  who  wrote,  "  There 
are  no  songs  comparable  to  the  songs  of  Zion,  no 
orations  equal  to  those  of  the  prophets,  and  no 
politics  like  those  which  the  Scriptures  teach. 

Better  teaching 
The  solid  rules  of  civil  government 
In  their  majestic,  unaffected  style, 
Than  all  the  oratory  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
In  them  is  plainest  taught,  and  easiest  learnt, 
What  makes  a  nation  happy,  and  keeps  it  so, 
What  ruins  kingdoms  and  lays  cities  flat; 
These  only,  with  our  law,  best  form  a  king." 

Reference  is  often  made  to  the  undisputed  fact 
that  the   Bible   was   largely   responsible   for   the 


THE  BIBLE  loi 

English  Reformation,  and  for  the  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty  which  England  and  America  enjoy. 
Indeed  democracy  itself  is  declared  to  be  the  fruit 
of  the  influence  of  the  Bible.  Dr.  Cleland  B. 
McAfee  says,  "  The  English  Reformation  received 
less  from  Luther  than  from  the  secret  reading 
of  the  Scriptures  over  the  whole  country.  What 
we  call  the  English  spirit  of  free  inquiry  was  fos- 
tered and  developed  by  Wycliffe  and  his  Lollards 
with  the  English  Scriptures  in  their  hands.  Out 
of  it  has  grown,  as  out  of  no  other  one  root,  the 
freedom  of  the  English  and  American  people." 
The  founders  of  this  Republic  brought  with  them 
the  spirit  of  reverence  for  things  sacred  and  divine, 
high  moral  standards,  regard  for  law,  and  above 
all,  the  accountability  of  the  individual  soul  to 
God;  and  all  these  they  had  learned  from  their 
Book  of  religion.  It  was  these  that  inspired  them 
and  guided  them  in  their  great  undertaking.  Pro- 
fessor Bliss  Perry  says,  "  One  Rev^erence,  at  least, 
was  common  to  the  Englishman  of  Virginia  and 
to  the  Englishman  of  Plymouth  and  Massachu- 
setts Bay.  They  were  joint  heirs  of  the  Refor- 
mation, children  of  that  waxing  and  puissant  Eng- 
land, which  was  a  nation  of  one  Book,  the  Bi- 
ble, ...  a  Book  rich  beyond  all  others  in  human 
experience;  full  of  poetry,  history,  drama;  the 
test  of  conduct ;  the  manual  of  devotion ;  and  above 


102     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

all  and  blinding  all  other  considerations  by  the 
very  splendor  of  the  thought,  a  Book  believed  to 
be  the  veritable  Word  of  the  unseen  God.  For 
these  colonists  in  the  wilderness,  as  for  the  Prot- 
estant Europe  which  they  had  left  irrevocably 
behind  them,  the  Bible  was  the  plainest  of  all  sym- 
bols of  idealism;  it  was  the  first  of  the  "  Rever- 
ences." Again  he  says,  "  The  United  States  is 
properly  called  a  Christian  nation,  not  merely  be- 
cause the  Supreme  Court  has  so  affirmed  it,  but 
because  '  a  Christian  nation '  expresses  the  his- 
torical form  which  the  religious  idealism  of  the 
country  has  made  Its  own.  The  Bible  is  still  con- 
sidered by  the  mass  of  the  people  a  sacred  Book; 
oaths  in  courts  of  law,  oaths  of  persons  elected  to 
great  office,  are  administered  upon  it."  It  should 
be  added,  as  indicating  the  Christian  character  of 
the  nation,  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  army  and  navy  have  their  chaplains,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Government  and  salaried  out  of 
the  public  treasury.  Moreover,  State  and  City 
administrations  are  wont  to  be  inaugurated  and 
public  buildings  to  be  dedicated  by  prayer  to  the 
God  of  the  Christian  revelation.  An  attempt  to 
eliminate  these  religious  officials  and  to  abolish 
these  religious  services  would  be  met  by  a  nation- 
wide protest,  and  would  not  only  proclaim  this 
nation  as  a  Godless  nation,  but  would  reduce  it  to 


THE  BIBLE  103 

a  worse  than  heathen  condition,  for  heathen  na- 
tions have  their  authorized  religious  ceremonies. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  one  of  our  States  has  re- 
cently taken  action  "  barring  finally  and  perma- 
nently, on  constitutional  grounds,  the  Bible  from 
public  use  in  the  public  schools."  A  correspond- 
ent to  a  religious  journal  commenting  on  this 
action,  justly  says,  "  It  sounds  anomalous  that  in 
a  nation  which  owes  its  existence  to  the  devotion 
of  its  founders  to  the  principles  of  the  Bible  as 
such,  its  youth  should  be  denied  the  benefit  of 
Bible-reading,  not  to  say  Bible-study,  in  their 
school  exercises.  But  such  seems  to  be  one  of 
the  paradoxical  results  of  the  logical  (  ?)  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  of  liberty  of  conscience  and 
separation  of  Church  and  State."  The  cor- 
respondent adds,  "  The  evil  of  this  is  that  appar- 
ently it  puts  a  public  ban  or  stigma  upon  the  Bible, 
under  which  the  lovers  of  the  Book,  cannot  permit 
it  to  remain.  The  very  appearance  of  discrim- 
inating against  the  Bible  must  be  removed." 
That  Supreme  Court  in  order  to  be  consistent  in 
its  action  should  decree  that  all  literature  and  text 
books  making  any  reference  to  the  Bible,  or  in- 
culcating lessons  contained  in  the  Bible,  or  show- 
ing the  fruits  of  the  Bible  in  individual  character 
and  in  national  history,  our  own  national  history 
included,    should    be    excluded    from    the    public 


I04     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

schools  forever.  Neither  modern  English  litera- 
ture, nor  the  marked  progress  in  ethical  ideals 
and  in  philosophic  thought  during  the  last  three 
hundred  years,  nor  modern  history  in  any  of  its 
phases,  can  be  studied  intelligently  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  Bible. 

One  great  reason,  probably  the  great  reason, 
why  the  founders  of  the  Republic  exalted  the  Bible 
to  such  a  conspicuous  place,  was  because  of  the  in- 
dissoluble connection  which  they  believed  to  exist 
between  morals  and  religion,  between  personal, 
social  and  political  morality  and  the  great  truths 
of  the  Christian  faith.  In  their  judgment  the 
highest  morality  was  based  upon  the  teachings  of 
a  divine  Revelation,  and  must  be  sustained  and 
perpetuated  by  them;  the  Bible  which  had  given 
to  them  their  essential  freedom  and  democracy 
was  necessary  to  preserve  them  and  keep  them 
pure.  Washington  said  in  words  which  should 
ever  be  remembered  by  the  American  nation, 
"  The  free  cultivation  of  letters,  the  unbounded 
extension  of  commerce,  the  progressive  refinement 
of  manners,  the  growing  liberality  of  sentiment, 
and  above  all,  the  pure  and  benign  light  of  Reve- 
lation have  had  a  meliorating  influence  on  man- 
kind, and  increased  the  blessings  of  society.  Of 
all  the  dispositions  and  habits  of  men  which  lead 
to  political  prosperity,  religion  and  morality  are 


THE  BIBLE  105 

indispensable  supports.  In  vain  would  that  man 
claim  the  tribute  of  patriotism  who  should  labor 
to  subvert  these  pillars  of  human  happiness,  these 
firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  citizens. 
The  mere  politician,  equally  with  the  pious  man, 
ought  to  respect  them.  And  let  us  with  caution 
indulge  the  supposition,  that  morality  can  be  sus- 
tained without  religion.  Whatever  may  be  con- 
ceded to  the  influence  of  refined  education  on 
minds  of  a  peculiar  structure,  reason  and  experi- 
ence both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  moral- 
ity can  prevail  in  exclusion  of  religious  principle." 
These  noble  words  uttered  without  fear  of  being 
charged  with  narrowness  or  bigotry,  disclose  a 
rational  and  farsighted  statesmanship  which  will 
ever  make  the  name  of  Washington  illustrious. 

In  like  manner  Judge  Hornblower,  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  New  Jersey,  who  was  born  the  first  year 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  died 
widely  honored  in  the  third  year  of  the  Civil  War, 
declared,  "  Let  this  precious  volume  have  its 
proper  influence  on  the  hearts  of  men,  and  our 
liberties  are  safe,  our  country  blessed,  and  the 
world  happy.  There  is  not  a  tie  that  unites  us 
to  our  families,  not  a  virtue  that  endears  us  to  our 
country,  nor  a  hope  that  thrills  our  bosoms  in  the 
prospect  of  future  happiness,  that  has  not  its 
foundation  in  this  Bible.     It  is  the  charter  of  char- 


io6     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

ters,    the   palladium   of  liberty,   the   standard   of 
righteousness." 

It  was  the  prevalence  of  such  views  as  these  that 
led  the  fathers  to  establish  schools  of  learning 
and  to  encourage  the  organization  of  Christian 
churches,  that  we  might  be  an  intelligent,  moral, 
upright  and  God-fearing  people,  whose  prayer 
should  ever  be,  "  Let  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our 
God  be  upon  us,  and  establish  Thou  the  work  of 
our  hands  upon  us;  yea,  the  work  of  our  hands 
establish  Thou  it."  They  had  no  thought  of  an 
education  which  did  not  include  morality  and  re- 
ligion. And  although  they  firmly  believed  in  the 
great  principle  of  religious  liberty,  the  separation 
of  Church  and  State,  they  did  not  believe  in  the 
misinterpretation  and  perversion  of  that  principle 
which  would  separate  religion  from  the  State. 
The  Bible  was  read  in  the  schools,  not  as  a  sec- 
tarian book,  but  as  a  book  of  morals  and  religion, 
with  its  silent  but  powerful  appeal  to  the  reverence 
of  the  pupils,  their  love  of  truth  and  honor,  their 
recognition  of  the  being  of  God  and  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man,  and  a  belief  in  the  immortal  life 
and  an  invisible  world,  and  prayer  was  offered 
to  the  Lord  and  Maker  of  us  all.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  we  are  drifting  away  from  the  wise 
spirit  and  purpose  of  the  fathers,  that  in  our  nar- 
row and  erroneous  interpretation  of  religious  lib- 


THE  BIBLE  107 

erty  and  the  meaning  of  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  we  are  robbing  the  State  of  the  princi- 
pal means  of  its  healthy  growth  and  prosperity, 
and  destroying  that  which  has  given  to  us  our  re- 
ligious liberty,  and  is  its  only  preservative. 

Bishop  Anderson  of  Chicago  says,  "  Education 
has  been  completely  secularized  as  if  man  had 
no  soul,  and  the  world  had  no  God.  Religion  has 
been  as  completely  isolated  as  if  character  had  no 
place  in  a  child's  education.  Our  education  is 
losing  its  religious  values.  Our  religion  is  losing 
its  educational  values." 

The  State  is  bound  to  be  the  protector  and  pro- 
moter of  the  morals  of  the  people  for  its  own 
sake.  It  exempts  Church  property,  as  it  does 
school  property,  from  taxation,  because  Christian 
churches  minister  to  the  peace,  the  good  order  and 
purity  of  the  community.  Without  them  and 
their  unceasing  ministry,  life,  property  and  hap- 
piness would  all  be  imperiled.  The  State  sets 
apart  the  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest  and  an  oppor- 
tunity for  worship,  because  it  believes  that  such 
an  ordinance  is  for  the  health  and  good  morals  of 
the  people,  and  for  the  protection  of  their  rights. 
If  a  man  from  conscientious  scruples  insists  upon 
observing  Saturday,  there  is  no  law  against  it;  but 
his  duty  is  clear,  that  is,  to  have  two  days  of  rest, 
one  for  his  conscience's  sake  and  a  second  for  his 


io8     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

neighbor's  sake,  that  his  rest  may  not  be  dis- 
turbed or  his  rights  invaded.  In  like  manner  the 
State  has  a  right  not  only  to  insist  upon  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young  people,  but  to  determine  its 
character,  that  it  shall  possess  a  distinctly  moral 
element,  that  it  shall  not  be  non-moral  or  God- 
less or  non-patriotic  or  unpatriotic.  Sects  may 
add  to  it,  but  they  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to 
change  or  diminish  it.  The  State  should  be  con- 
trolled and  determined  by  the  thought  of  its  own 
high  interests.  It  is  a  matter  of  imperative  needs 
and  of  self-preservation.  All  education  should  be 
under  the  supervision  of  the  State,  not  only  public 
education,  but  that  of  private  institutions,  sup- 
ported by  private  funds,  especially  if  the  State  ex- 
empts their  properties  from  taxation.  The  edu- 
cation should  be  such  as  will  strengthen  moral 
character  as  well  as  Inform  the  mind,  and  will 
prepare  for  good  citizenship.  A  college  sup- 
ported by  a  religious  denomination  may  teach  sec- 
tarianism in  addition,  if  it  chooses  to  do  so,  unless 
the  tenets  and  practices  of  the  denomination  are 
Immoral,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mormons.  Then 
the  State  has  no  option  but  to  assume  control  of 
Its  educational  system,  and  purge  It  of  Its  per- 
nicious and  dangerous  elements.  If  a  college 
charter  prohibits  sectarianism  In  Its  teaching  but 
still  provides  and  Insists  that  It  shall  be  a  Chris- 


THE  BIBLE  109 

tian  college,  and  give  a  Christian  education,  then 
its  teachers  are  honorably  bound  to  avoid  sectarian 
teaching,  and  are  bound  in  equal  honor  to  build 
up  Christian  faith.  Christian  morality  and  posi- 
tive Christian  character.  To  hold  their  positions 
with  the  approval  of  conscience  and  the  approval 
of  their  fellow  men,  their  whole  influence,  by 
teaching  and  example,  must  be  constructive  of  the 
fundamental  positions  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  not  destructive.  Infidelity  and  skepticism  can 
be  as  sectarian  as  faith,  and  the  worst  kind  of 
sectarianism  is  a  sectarian  infidelity,  and  that 
should  be  prohibited  in  every  educational  institu- 
tion of  whatever  grade  in  the  land,  lest  the  solid 
foundations  of  government  be  destroyed.  His- 
tory is  not  without  its  solemn  warnings. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  every  branch  of  knowl- 
edge, language,  history,  science,  philosophy,  so- 
ciology and  even  mathematics  can  be  taught  not 
only  in  a  Christian  spirit  and  in  a  Christian  man- 
ner, but  so  as  to  leave  a  Christian  impression  upon 
character  and  life,  and  minister  to  the  strengthen- 
ing and  confirmation  of  Christian  faith.  Profes- 
sor John  Fiske  declared  in  1886,  "  As  in  the  roar- 
ing loom  of  time  the  endless  web  of  events  is 
woven,  each  strand  shall  make  more  and  more 
clearly  visible  the  living  garment  of  God."  Pro- 
fessor Shaler,  also  of  Harvard  University,  says 


no     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

in  "  The  Interpretation  of  Nature,"  a  strongly 
theistic  book,  "  As  the  conception  of  these  and 
other  laws  and  principles  operating  in  nature  be- 
comes more  complicated,  naturalists  are  being 
driven  step  by  step  to  hypothecate  the  presence  in 
the  universe  of  conditions  which  are  best  explained 
by  the  supposition  that  the  direction  of  affairs  is 
in  the  control  of  Something  like  our  own  intelli- 
gence. ...  In  other  words,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  naturalist  is  most  likely  to  approach  the  posi- 
tion of  the  philosophical  theologian  by  paths  which 
at  first  seemed  to  lie  far  apart  from  his  domain." 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  closed  his  Presidential  Address 
before  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  held  in  September, 
1913,  with  these  significant  words,  "We  are 
deaf  and  blind  to  the  immanent  grandeur  around 
us,  unless  we  have  insight  enough  to  appreciate 
the  whole,  and  to  recognize  in  the  woven  fabric 
of  existence,  flowing  steadily  from  the  loom  of 
an  infinite  progress  towards  perfection  the  ever- 
growing garment  of  a  transcendent  God."  This 
language  is  strikingly  similar  to  that  of  John 
Fiske.  An  editor  of  a  religious  journal,  com- 
menting on  this  Address,  said,  "  The  more  recent 
developments  of  science  have  been  all  in  the  direc- 
tion of  confirming  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual, 
the  truth  of  creational  evolution,  the  existence  of 


THE  BIBLE  iii 

God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  It  seems 
evident  as  another  has  said  that,  "  Science  is  thus 
leading  to  something  beyond  science  as  alone  sup- 
plying the  solution  of  the  world's  riddle."  A 
living  Professor  of  Biology,  in  an  article  re- 
cently published,  goes  farther  and  affirms,  "  Real 
religion  finds  ,no  better  ally  than  real  science,  and 
false  religion  no  saner  foe.  The  insight  of  sci- 
ence must  find  a  present  God,  an  abiding  and  im- 
manent God,  living,  not  dead,  the  great  'I  am  '; 
a  working  God,  not  one  who  did  work  once,  but 
quit  it;  not  a  dead  idol,  or  a  dead  notion,  but  the 
pulsing  flame  and  force  in  all  and  through  all  and 
above  all,  the  one  true  God  '  in  whom  all  things 
consists.'  .  ,  .  Science  tends  more  and  more  not 
only  to  show,  but  to  prove,  that  the  Christian  life 
is  the  only  entirely  rational  life;  that  all  it  de- 
mands is  a  sane  and  vital  consistency  with  the 
ethical  needs  and  hungers  of  our  nature  to  make 
complete  one  whole  human  being,  in  character  and 
conduct,  as  God  meant  it;  that  there  is  something 
in  us  that  responds  nobly  to  every  item  of  the 
Christian  programme;  in  other  words,  that  Chris- 
tianity is  psychologically  and  scientifically  rational. 
.  .  .  The  outlook  of  science  is  not  toward  a  new 
religion,  but  an  all-pervading  Christian  religion, 
the    paragon    and    perfection    of   sanity;    neither 


112     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

fanaticism  nor  unreason,  but  righteousness,  peace 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

That  Professor  is  evidently  a  convinced  and  a 
pronounced  believer  in  the  reality,  the  universality 
and  the  finality  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  be- 
lieves that  his  scientific  knowledge  is  confirmatory 
of  every  item  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  has 
found  that  "  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom,"  and  also  the  middle  and  the  end. 
Most  teachers  of  science  are  in  accord  with  him. 
Would  that  all  were  like-minded,  and  had  as  full 
an  appreciation  of  the  responsibilities  of  their  high 
and  holy  calling. 

Many  American  colleges  and  universities  have 
established  chairs  of  Biblical  Literature  and  His- 
tory, believing  that  the  curriculum  would  be  sadly 
deficient  without  such  instruction.  In  many  of 
them,  possibly  in  all,  the  instruction  needs  to  be 
reconstructed  and  expanded  to  a  larger  value  and 
service,  covering  the  varied  uses  to  which  the  re- 
markable Book  offers  itself,  viz.,  historical,  bi- 
ographical, literary,  ethical  and  religious.  There 
are  few  departments  in  a  college  course,  in  which 
the  Bible  would  not  be  at  home.  A  recent  Uni- 
versity Alumni  Monthly  contained  a  prepared  list 
of  books  for  the  guidance  of  students,  which  every 
student  ought  to  know  by  personal  intimate  ac- 
quaintance.    The   list   comprised   the   names   of 


THE  BIBLE  113 

about  sixty  authors,  ancient  and  modern,  and  in- 
cluded more  than  two  hundred  books.  There 
were  Homer  and  Plato,  Cicero  and  Virgil,  Plu- 
tarch and  Marcus  Aurelius,  Dante  and  Chaucer, 
Bacon  and  Shakespeare,  Milton  and  Bunyan, 
Goethe  and  Victor  Hugo,  and  English  and  Amer- 
ican historians,  novelists  and  poets.  But  the  Bible 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  list.  Of  course  it 
was,  and  would  have  been  had  the  list  been  many 
times  longer. 

But  the  great  problem  at  the  present  time  is 
with  the  public  school,  how  the  Bible  may  be  re- 
stored to  its  former  place  and  lend  its  marvelously 
helpful  influence  and  greatly  needed  aid  to  the  edu- 
cation of  the  rising  generation.*  Many  of  the 
teachers,  both  men  and  women,  are  Christians, 
openly  connected  with  Christian  churches,  and 
their  high  personal  character,  known  attitude  to- 
ward the  Christian  religion,  and  their  general  ad- 
ministration of  their  schools  exert  a  positive  in- 
fluence for  good  upon  the  minds  of  the  children 

*  Inquiries,  sent  to  the  Superintendents  of  Schools  in  the 
different  States  elicited  the  following  replies.  In  twelve  States 
the  oldest  in  the  Republic,  the  Bible  is  required  to  be  read  in 
the  schools  daily,  according  to  a  long  established  custom.  In 
thirteen  States  it  is  not  excluded,  and  the  reports  state  that  it 
is  read  quite  generally  in  the  schools.  In  five  States  the  reports 
state  simply  that  it  is  read  in  a  part  of  the  schools.  In  two 
States  the  reading  of  the  Bible  is  said  to  be  encouraged,  but 
the  results  are  not  given.  And  in  one  State  it  is  left  to  local 
Boards,  whose  action  is  not  reported.  No  reports  from  the 
other  States  are  given,  probably  because  none  were  received. 


114     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

and  youth  under  their  care.  They  are  living  il- 
lustrations of  the  Christian  spirit  and  its  molding 
power  upon  character.  They  teach  obedience  to 
authority,  loyalty  to  duty,  love  for  truth  and  hon- 
esty, and  respect  for  the  rights  of  others,  and  in 
many  ways  they  are  not  only  imparting  the  ele- 
ments of  secular  education,  but  are  seeking  faith- 
fully to  prepare  their  pupils  for  the  important  du- 
ties of  citizenship  in  a  nation,  in  which  the  power 
rests  upon  the  intelligence  and  purity  and  high 
moral  principles  of  the  people.  Professors 
Sneath  and  Hodges,  joint  authors  of  a  small  vol- 
ume on  "  Moral  Training  in  the  School  and 
Home,"  acknowledge  the  silent  and  important  in- 
fluence of  the  religious  teacher  in  the  work  of  edu- 
cation in  these  words  — "  The  personality  of  the 
teacher  is  the  constant  text-book  of  the  school. 
The  religious  teacher,  conscious  of  God,  devoted 
to  the  highest  ideals,  looking  toward  the  life  un- 
seen and  immortal,  will  overcome  all  limitations 
and  temporary  hindrances,  and  make  the  school  a 
religious  influence.  Morality  will  be  infused  with 
religion  as  flowers  are  filled  with  fragrance." 

It  has  been  well  said,  "  Morality  must  be  lived 
before  it  can  be  taught;  it  is  first  introduced  into 
school  life  by  example.  .  .  .  Ethics  makes  no 
distinction  between  master  and  pupil." 

But  great  and  beneficent  as  are  the  work  and 


THE  BIBLE  115 

influence  of  such  teachers,  the  results  are  acknowl- 
edged by  educators  themselves  to  be  far  from  sat- 
isfactory. Men  of  eminence  in  the  educational 
world,  men  of  large  experience  and  wide  observa- 
tion, are  recognizing  and  confessing  the  weakness 
and  inadequacy  of  our  present  methods  of  educa- 
tion, even  for  the  purpose  of  good  citizenship,  of 
high  toned  morality  and  honest  dealing  between 
man  and  man.  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot,  late  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard  University,  in  an  address  before 
the  Connecticut  Teachers'  Association  a  few  years 
since,  acknowledged  frankly  and  regretfully  "  the 
failures  and  shortcomings  of  American  education," 
saying  it  did  not  furnish  a  successful  method  of 
dealing  with  certain  personal  vices  and  social  evils, 
whose  persistence  was  sadly  disappointing  to  the 
friends  and  advocates  of  popular  education.  Ed- 
ucation, it  is  believed,  must  have  introduced  into 
it  somehow  a  stronger  and  more  potent  moral  ele- 
ment. It  must  somehow  be  made  to  touch  the 
deeper  things  of  the  spirit  and  kindle  the  nobler 
emotions  of  the  heart,  inciting  to  reverence,  purity, 
self-restraint,  self-sacrifice  and  worthy  ambitions. 
This  conception  of  education  is  by  no  means 
new  or  modern.  It  is  as  old  as  Greek  philosophy, 
if  it  is  rightly  interpreted.  Professor  Irving  Bab- 
bitt of  Harvard  University  says,  "  We  are  told 
that  the  aim  of  Socrates  in  his  teaching  of  the 


ii6     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

young  was  not  to  make  them  efficient,  but  to  In- 
spire in  them  reverence  and  restraint;  for  to  make 
them  efficient,  said  Socrates,  without  reverence 
and  restraint,  was  simply  to  equip  them  with 
ampler  means  for  harm."  "  Not  to  make  them 
efficient,"  said  Socrates  (we  are  hearing  much  in 
these  practical  days  about  the  great  need  of  effi- 
ciency), "but  to  inspire  in  them  reverence  and 
restraint,"  reverence  for  law,  for  truth  and  justice, 
and  the  higher  values  of  life,  and  the  restraint  of 
the  evil  passions  and  appetites  of  the  heart,  and 
of  selfish  and  unworthy  ambitions.  Heeren,  the 
Greek  historian,  tells  us  significantly  that  "  Greece 
fell  when  things  sacred  ceased  to  be  sacred."  All 
its  art  and  education,  philosophy  and  culture,  did 
not  save  It  from  decay. 

The  following  paragraph  is  quoted  from  an 
English  author,  "  But  the  realization  that  re- 
ligion is  fundamental  both  to  national  greatness 
and  to  the  moral  progress  of  human  nature  should 
be  a  permanent  conviction  of  the  mind,  the  deep- 
est and  the  most  earnest  —  a  conviction  entirely 
independent  of  chance  occurrence  for  its  emphasis. 
From  the  beginning  of  time  there  have  been  no 
morals  without  religion;  and  every  period  of  the 
world's  history  of  a  great  moral  decadence,  and 
the  downfall  of  mighty  empires,  has  been  pre- 
ceded by  the  triumphs  of  skepticism." 


THE  BIBLE  117 

Emile  Boutroux,  a  teacher  of  teachers  at  the 
Fontenay  School,  says,  "  Even  in  the  eighteenth 
century  Rousseau  inquired  whether  intellectual 
progress  has  moral  progress  for  its  necessary 
consequence;  he  maintained  that  for  civilization 
to  have  the  happy  effect  of  transforming  a  human 
being  acting  by  instinct  into  a  reasonable  and  free 
individual,  it  must  be  dominated  by  the  idea  of 
the  moral  determinations  of  human  nature." 

The  National  Educational  Association,  in  its 
Declaration  of  Principles  in  1905,  affirmed  "  The 
ultimate  object  of  popular  education  is  to  teach 
the  children  how  to  live  righteously,  healthily  and 
happily,  and  that  to  accomplish  this  object  it  is 
essential  that  every  school  inculcate  the  love  of 
truth,  justice,  purity  and  beauty.  .  .  .  The  build- 
ing of  character  is  the  real  aim  of  the  schools  and 
the  ultimate  reason  for  the  expenditure  of  mil- 
lions for  their  maintenance." 

The  Christian  Register,  a  Unitarian  organ, 
wisely  says, — "  The  more  we  open  the  world  to 
what  we  call  civilization,  and  the  more  education 
we  give  it  of  the  kind  we  call  scientific,  the  greater 
are  the  dangers  to  modern  society,  unless  in  some 
way  we  contrive  to  make  the  world  better." 

And  Professors  Sneath  and  Hodges  declare  — 
*'  Boys  and  girls  may  go  out  from  such  a  school 
.   .   .   ignorant  of  the  value   of  the   virtues,   and 


ii8     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

resenting  authority.  They  may  be  sent  out  into 
the  community  equipped  to  do  evil  intelligently, 
and  inclined  to  do  it.  The  very  excellence  of 
the  intellectual  instruction  may  make  the  school 
a  menace  to  the  State." 

Can  this  "  ultimate  object  "  of  popular  educa- 
tion be  accomplished  without  the  aid  of  moral 
teaching  enforced  by  a  religious  motive  and  re- 
ligious truth?  Herbart  expresses  the  wide- 
spread conviction  when  he  says  that  the  impera- 
tive need  in  education  is  "  character-training  based 
on  an  irrefragable  foundation  of  morality." 
Should  the  faithful  teachers  be  deprived  of  the 
slightest  use  of  an  instrumentality  which  is  the 
most  hopeful,  if  not  the  only  possible  one,  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  ultimate  object  of  edu- 
cation, which  is  the  main  justification  of  the 
State's  enormous  expenditure?  Has  the  Stalte 
the  right  to  recognize  the  Bible  and.its  influence 
in  any  way  as  a  necessary  part  of  an  educational 
outfit?  Or  must  it  leave  to  the  uncertainty  or  the 
utter  neglect  of  the  home,  or  the  limited  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Sunday  School,  whose  influence  only 
a  part  of  the  children  enjoy,  a  work  on  which  it 
depends  for  its  peace  and  its  abiding  prosperity? 
Here  is  the  problem.  The  Jews  and  the  Roman 
Catholics  (strange  to  say)  object  to  the  simple 
reading  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools,  though 


THE  BIBLE  119 

by  no  means  all  of  them.  Some  Protestants  ob- 
ject, basing  their  opposition  upon  their  conception 
of  the  great  doctrine  of  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  which  they  interpret  as  meaning  the 
separation  of  religion  and  the  State.  Yet  there 
is  an  increasing  demand,  growing  out  of  a  felt 
necessity,  for  a  recognition  of  the  Bible  in  our 
public  school  system.  Its  literary  influence  is 
needed  by  all,  especially  by  those  who  are  not  to 
enjoy  the  opportunities  which  a  college  course 
may  offer.  Its  charm  can  be  felt  by  the  young- 
est minds,  and  its  elevation  of  the  literary  taste. 
It  has  been  called  "  the  key  to  modern  culture," 
and  opens  the  door  to  the  better  enjoyment  of  the 
true  riches  of  our  libraries.  But  above  all,  its 
moral  and  religious  influence  is  needed  by  the 
mind  in  its  most  plastic  period,  when  impressions 
sink  deepest  and  abide  longest;  and  the  impres- 
sions made  by  the  pure  Word  of  God  will  be 
good  and  only  good,  and  helpful  to  the  family  life 
and  to  parental  authority  and  discipline,  whatever 
may  be  the  particular  religious  faith  of  the  par- 
ents, as  well  as  a  determining  influence  upon  the 
character  of  the  children. 

To  quote  again  from  the  authors  above  men- 
tioned— *'  If  the  function  of  the  school  is  to  send 
out,  not  merely  persons  who  can  read,  write  and 
cipher,  but  good  citizens,  then  it  is  plain  that  the 


I20     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

highest  service  the  school  can  render  to  the  com- 
munity is  to  secure  the  goodness  of  those  citizens 
by  founding  it  on  the  soundest  possible  basis." 
In  order  to  accomplish  this  it  is  evident  that  moral 
sanctions  must  be  enforced  by  religious  sanctions. 
President  Stanley  Hall  says,  "  The  realization  that 
God's  laws  are  not  like  those  of  parents  and 
teachers,  evadible,  suspensible,  but  changeless,  and 
their  penalties  sure  as  the  laws  of  nature,  is  a 
most  important  factor  in  moral  training." 

Mr.  Huxley  is  compelled  to  confess,  "  I  have 
always  been  strongly  in  favor  of  secular  educa- 
tion, in  the  sense  of  education  without  theology; 
but  I  must  confess  I  have  been  no  less  seriously 
perplexed  to  know  by  what  practical  measures  the 
religious  feeling,  which  is  the  essential  basis  of 
conduct,  was  to  be  kept  up,  in  the  present  utterly 
chaotic  state  of  opinion  on  these  matters,  without 
the  use  of  the  Bible.  The  Pagan  moralists  lack 
life  and  color,  and  even  the  noble  stoic,  Marcus 
Aurelius  Antoninus,  is  too  high  and  refined  for 
an  ordinary  child."  This  is  the  glory  of  the 
Sacred  Scripture,  that  while  its  thoughts  often 
tax  the  minds  of  the  most  learned  and  mature,  its 
language  is  suited  to  the  simplest  and  the  hum- 
blest. "  A  child  can  play  in  its  waters,  and  an 
elephant  can  swim  in  them." 

Different  remedies  are  being  urged  by  many  who 


THE  BIBLE  121 

are  interested  in  the  best  education  of  the  young 
and  in  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  for  the  serious 
neglect  to  secure  the  full  value  of  the  Bible  as 
an  educational  influence  upon  the  life  of  youth. 
Of  course  the  instruction  in  the  Christian  home 
and  the  Sunday  School  needs  to  be  advanced  to 
the  highest  point  of  perfection,  but  even  then  a 
large  portion  of  the  scholars  are  not  included  un- 
der such  influences,  and  the  responsibility  of  the 
State  is  not  met.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the 
schools  close  one  hour  earlier  each  day  or  that 
a  half  day  each  week  be  given  up,  and  that  the 
scholars  of  such  parents  as  are  willing  be  per- 
mitted to  receiv^e  instruction  from  especially  ap- 
pointed teachers  in  the  Bible,  and  in  the  applica- 
tion of  its  teachings  to  conduct  and  life.  It  has 
also  been  suggested  that  the  different  religious 
denominations  withdraw  their  children  from  the 
general  public  schools,  and  organize  them  into 
sectarian  schools  which  shall  be  under  the  imme- 
diate supervision  of  the  Church  authorities,  and 
in  which  the  tenets  and  practices  of  the  individual 
Church  may  be  freely  taught.  This  is  already  be- 
ing done  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the 
children  in  large  numbers  are  being  gathered  in 
parochial  schools,  and  taught  by  priestly  teachers 
in  courses  of  instruction,  over  which  the  State  has 
no  control,  and  of  which  it  knows  absolutely  noth- 


122     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

ing.  The  reports  of  parents  who  have  with- 
drawn their  children  from  these  schools  because 
of  dissatisfaction  with  the  education  they  were  re- 
ceiving, state  that  the  education  is  superficial  and 
inadequate,  and  is  calculated  to  make  the  pupils 
Roman  Catholics  first  rather  than  intelligent  citi- 
zens of  a  free  Republic,  in  which  the  conscience 
is  free,  and  every  man  is  responsible  only  to  God 
and  the  revelation  of  his  will,  which  He  has  made 
in  his  inspired  Word.  Moreover,  the  Roman 
Catholic  authorities  are  making  bold  and  per- 
sistent demands  for  a  share  in  the  public  funds 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  schools,  and  already 
confidently  boast  of  speedy  success  by  reason  of  a 
rapidly  increasing  immigrant  vote,  which  will  be 
able  to  dictate  party-politics,  and  control  legisla- 
tion. There  should  be  but  one  reply  to  this  de- 
mand, viz.,  that  school  funds  can  never  be  used 
for  sectarian  purposes,  that  consent  in  one  case 
would  establish  a  most  confusing  and  dangerous 
precedent,  and  would  be  a  direct  and  flagrant  vio- 
lation of  the  fundamental  principle  enunciated  in 
the  national  constitution. 

The  course  to  be  pursued  to  remedy  the  serious 
deficiency  in  our  educational  system,  which  seems 
to  be  feasible  and  unobjectionable  to  an  increas- 
ing number  of  thoughtful  citizens,  is  to  restore  the 
Bible,  in  whole  or  perhaps  better  in  part,  to  a 


THE  BIBLE  123 

recognized  and  influential  place  in  public  instruc- 
tion as  an  unequaled  literary  standard,  as  a  book 
of  superior  ethical  value,  and  as  inculcating  a  re- 
ligious motive  without  which  morality  has  a  weak 
and  uncertain  basis.  The  Bible  cannot  be 
charged  with  being  a  sectarian  book,  and  there 
can  be  religion,  that  is,  the  acceptance  of  great, 
universal  and  unchangeable  truths  about  God,  in 
harmony  with  the  deepest  instincts  of  the  moral 
nature  of  man,  without  sectarianism.  A  prom- 
inent educator,  the  Principal  of  a  Baptist  Acad- 
emy, has  recently  declared  in  a  public  address, 
"  The  Bible  should  be  taught  in  our  public  schools 
because  of  its  value  as  history  and  its  value  as 
literature.  School  and  college  training  in  the 
humanities  covers  the  history  and  literature  of  all 
peoples,  except  that  peculiar  people  whose  reli- 
gious spirit  has  permeated  all  art,  literature,  law 
and  government,  and  is  the  lasting  glory  of  our 
modern  civilization.  More  than  all,  the  Bible 
should  be  taught  in  our  public  schools  for  its 
moral  and  religious  influence.  Since  a  nation  is 
the  aggregation  of  its  individual  units,  the  people 
must  be  moral  and  religious  as  well  as  intelligent. 
It  is  the  province  of  the  State  to  teach  morals  and 
religion  as  the  foundation  of  its  own  prosperity. 
States  are  moral  persons,  and  as  such  need  a 
moral  and  religious  training.     No  other  civilized 


124     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

nation  except  the  United  States  neglects  moral  and 
religious  instruction  in  its  educational  system. 
The  Bible  should  be  taught  because  this  is  a 
Christian  nation,  and  the  public  schools  should 
conform  to  the  national  character.  Such  teach- 
ing does  not  produce  a  union  of  Church  and 
State,  for  the  Bible  is  a  Book  common  to  both. 
If  the  State  hands  over  to  the  Church  instruction 
in  some  truths  essential  to  national  well-being,  it 
thereby  vacates  a  part  of  its  own  authority,  and 
really  does  form  a  union  with  the  Church.  The 
Government  should  administer  its  own  affairs  in 
training  youth  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  upon  which  the  nation  is  founded. 
The  Bible  is  not  a  sectarian  Book  but  rather  a 
foe  of  all  sectarianism." 

This  is  eminently  wise  and  sane  reasoning. 
Many  persons  who  cherished  a  narrow  concep- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  have  been  compelled  by  further  reflec- 
tion to  accept  a  broader  view,  as  more  in  harmony 
with  the  principles  on  which  our  nation  was 
founded,  and  necessary  to  the  continued  growth 
and  permanent  prosperity  of  the  Republic.  This 
broader  interpretation  is  a  return  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  founders.  If  additional  evidence  is 
needed,  it  can  be  abundantly  produced.  Hon. 
Thomas  S.  Grimke,  a  distinguished  Scholar  and 


THE  BIBLE  125 

Philanthropist  in  the  South,  declared,  "  Believing 
as  I  do  that  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  Refor- 
mation was  to  have  incorporated  the  Bible  into 
the  whole  course  of  instruction,  I  trust  the  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  this  principle  will  be  uni- 
versally acknowledged  and  acted  on,  that  the 
Bible  is  the  only  good  basis,  and  the  only  safe,  en- 
during cement,  of  education."  Rev.  J.  H.  Seelye, 
D.D.,  a  well  known  Biblical  scholar,  has  affirmed 
that  "  The  religion  of  this  country  is  that  of  the 
Bible  ...  It  is  that  which  gives  character  and 
force  and  stability  to  our  government  and  laws. 
You  might  as  well  take  out  the  heart  from  the 
body,  and  suppose  that  it  would  be  a  living  body 
still,  as  to  take  away  the  Bible  and  all  its  in- 
fluences from  our  institutions,  and  expect  that 
these  will  be  preserved  from  decay.  He  that 
does  not  see,  and  will  not  acknowledge  the  power 
of  the  Bible  in  building  up  the  whole  framework 
of  American  institutions,  is  either  unwise  or  in- 
sincere." Benjamin  Rush,  M.D.,  the  honored 
physician  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, said,  "  In  contemplating  the  politi- 
cal institutions  of  the  United  States,  I  lament  that 
we  waste  so  much  time  and  money  In  punishing 
crimes,  and  take  so  little  pains  to  pi-event  them. 
We  profess  to  be  republicans,  and  yet  we  neglect 
the  only  means  of  establishing  and  perpetuating 


126     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

our  republican  form  of  government;  that  is,  the 
universal  education  of  our  youth  in  the  principles 
of  Christianity  by  means  of  the  Bible;  for  this 
divine  Book,  above  all  others,  favors  that  equal- 
ity among  mankind,  that  respect  for  just  laws, 
and  all  those  sober  and  frugal  virtues  which  con- 
stitute the  soul  of  republicanism." 

In  harmony  with  the  views  of  this  Christian 
physician  and  statesman  is  the  frankly  expressed 
opinion  of  the  agnostic  philosopher.  Professor 
Huxley  — "  I  may  add  yet  another  claim  of  the 
Bible  to  the  respect  and  attention  of  a  democratic 
age.  .  .  .  Nowhere  is  the  fundamental  truth, 
that  the  welfare  of  the  state,  in  the  long  run,  de- 
pends upon  the  righteousness  of  the  citizens,  so 
strongly  laid  down.  The  Bible  is  the  most  dem- 
ocratic book  in  the  world." 

All  persons  may  not  be  agreed  as  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  this  education  should  be  carried, 
but  it  would  seem  that  no  man  interested  in  the 
moral  character  of  the  young,  who  to-morrow  are 
to  be  heads  of  families  and  to  hold  the  reins  of 
government,  and  no  lover  of  the  country's  wel- 
fare and  prosperity,  could  raise  any  objection  to 
the  introduction  and  use  in  the  public  schools  of 
such  selections  from  the  Scriptures  as  are  appro- 
priate to  their  special  needs,  for  the  cultivation  of 
literary  style  and  high  thinking,  and  of  those  pri- 


THE  BIBLE  127 

vate  and  social  virtues  which  make  for  noble  char- 
acter and  responsible  citizenship.  A  collection  of 
parts  of  the  Bible,  for  example,  like  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, the  stories  of  Joseph  and  of  Queen 
Esther,  the  beautiful  idyl  of  Ruth,  the  drama  of 
Job,  which  Alexander  Pope  said  "  exceeds  beyond 
all  comparison  the  most  noble  parts  of  Homer," 
the  nineteenth  and  twenty-third  Psalms  and  many 
others,  the  sparkling  and  timeless  wisdom  of 
Proverbs,  several  chapters  in  Isaiah,  of  which 
Coleridge  said  "  after  reading  them.  Homer  and 
Virgil  are  disgustingly  tame,  and  Milton  himself 
barely  tolerable,"  the  messages  of  the  old  Proph- 
ets which  thunder  with  demands  for  private 
and  social  righteousness,  the  beatitudes  of  Mat- 
thew and  the  whole  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the 
kingly  Life  recorded  in  Mark,  the  touching  par- 
ables of  Luke,  so  natural  and  yet  so  divine,  the 
fourteenth  to  the  seventeenth  chapters  of  John, 
which  take  us  up  into  the  third  heavens  of  truth, 
the  wonderful  story  of  Paul's  life  and  heroic  con- 
secration to  the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of 
men,  to  whom  he  confessed  himself  a  debtor  for 
the  simple  reason  that  he  was  a  possessor  of 
riches  which  they  had  not,  the  striking  appeal  to 
integrity  and  holiness  of  life  in  the  sixth  chapter 
of  Romans  and  the  intensely  practical  lessons  for 
the  control  of  conduct  which  close  the  book,  the 


128     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

unparalleled  and  immortal  panegyric  of  love,  the 
crowning,  the  supreme  grace,  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  First  Corinthians, —  But  why  specify 
more?  What  a  collection  of  literary  gems,  of 
moral  treatises,  of  exalted  truths  expressed  in  the 
most  attractive  forms  for  the  instruction,  the  puri- 
fication, the  inspiration  of  the  mind  and  heart  of 
youth !  It  is  no  wonder  that  Professor  Gaussen 
of  Geneva  should  call  the  Bible,  "  God's  great  an- 
them of  revelation,  in  which  we  have  the  sublime 
simplicity  of  John,  the  argumentative,  elliptical, 
soul-stirring  energy  of  Paul,  the  fervor  and 
solemnity  of  Peter,  the  poetic  grandeur  of  Isaiah, 
the  lyric  moods  of  David,  the  ingenuous  and  ma- 
jestic narratives  of  Moses,  the  sententious  and 
royal  wisdom  of  Solomon." 

The  great  body  of  the  Bible  is  composed  of 
moral  and  religious  teachings  utterly  unrelated  to 
the  controversies  which  have  divided  Jew  and 
Christian  or  Christian  denominations  from  each 
other. 

It  would  seem  as  if  little  or  no  objection  could 
be  raised  from  any  source  to  such  beautiful  and 
wholesome  and  character-building  teachings  in 
our  public  schools.  No  reasonable  man,  no 
friend  of  ethical  instruction  as  having  to  do  with 
the  development  of  character  and  life,  no  patri- 
otic citizen  anxious  that  the  nation  should  pre- 


THE  BIBLE  129 

serve  the  high  Ideals  of  the  fathers,  could  raise 
any  serious  opposition  to  such  use.  No  atheist 
or  infidel,  if  such  there  be  among  us,  would  lift 
his  voice  against  the  plan  proposed,  unless  he  is 
willing  to  be  regarded  as  the  enemy  of  virtue, 
of  the  highest  education  of  the  young,  and  of  the 
weal  of  the  Republic.  Any  opposition  from  that 
quarter  may  be  regarded  as  a  negligible  quantity. 
There  are  few  pronounced  atheists  or  infidels 
among  us.  Men  almost  without  exception,  what- 
ever their  belief  or  unbelief,  desire  Christian  bur- 
ial for  their  friends  and  for  themselves.  It  is 
manifestly  absurd  to  compel  a  community,  per- 
meated by  a  religious  faith,  to  eliminate  all  ref- 
erence to  God  and  religion  from  their  educational 
system,  without  which  their  education  would  be 
fatally  weak,  for  the  sake  of  two  or  three  pro- 
fessed unbelievers.  Such  a  procedure  would  be 
the  worst  kind  of  tyranny,  and  would  change  re- 
ligious liberty  into  a  mockery.  An  incoming 
atheist  would  thus  have  power  to  pervert  and  un- 
dermine the  educational  structure  and  even 
the  civil  government  of  a  Christian  commun- 
ity, if  it  had  in  it  any  recognition  of  God. 
No  intelligent  Roman  Catholics  could  object  to 
such  use,  for  such  teaching  forms  a  part  of  their 
professed  educational  system,  and  would  enforce, 
and  in  no  way  conflict  with,  what  Is  best  and  holi- 


I30     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

est  in  their  claims,  and  could  be  supplemented  by 
what  is  essential  to  the  perpetuation  of  their  par- 
ticular church  organization.  The  members  of  the 
Jewish  faith  could  not  reasonably  oppose  the  plan, 
for  the  selections  would  be  in  large  part  taken 
from  their  most  sacred  books;  and  very  many 
leaders  among  them  at  the  present  time,  while 
they  do  not  accept  Jesus  as  their  promised  Mes- 
siah, being  disposed  rather  to  believe  that  He  was 
carried  away  by  the  enthusiasm  of  his  disciples 
into  that  belief  in  reference  to  Himself  and  his 
mission  (Is  it  not  rather  the  correct  interpreta- 
tion to  say  that  He  found  it  difficult  to  overcome 
the  unbelief  of  his  doubting  disciples?) ,  have  come 
to  feel  a  national  pride  in  Jesus  as  one  of  their 
own  race,  and  to  proclaim  Him  as  a  great  Jewish 
prophet  and  teacher,  because  of  his  remarkable 
and  increasing  influence  upon  the  best  thought 
of  modern  times.* 

Moreover,  it  is  believed  that  Protestant  Chris- 
tians, under  the  new  and  saner  interpretation  of 
the  meaning  of  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State,  viz.,  that  it  does  not  mean  the  separation  of 
religion  and  the  civil  government,  but  only  that 

*The  following  tributes  to  Jesus  are  from  eminent  Jews,  and 
are  samples  of  many  that  might  be  adduced. 

Mr.  Claude  Montefiore:  "The  most  important  Jew  that  has 
ever  lived,  to  whom  the  sinner  and  the  outcast,  age  after  age, 
have  owed  a  great  debt  of  gratitude." 

Dr.  Isidore  Singer:    "I  regard  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  a  Jew 


THE  BIBLE  131 

the  Church  as  an  organized  institution  shall  not 
rival  or  interfere  with  or  be  allowed  to  control 
the  civil  powers  which  themselves  are  ordained 
by  God,  will  not  long  be  willing  to  exclude  from 
our  educational  equipment,  now  actually  and 
widely  acknowledged  to  be  inadequate,  the  chief 
source  of  moral  and  literary  culture,  and  the  one 
instrument  above  all  others  that  can  elevate  the 
education  of  the  young  to  the  highest  standard  of 
efficiency,  and  preserve  the  civil  institutions,  in- 
herited from  the  wise  founders,  from  weakness 
and  decay,  viz.,  the  Bible.  A  general  movement 
on  the   part   of  the   better  class   of  our  citizens 

of  the  Jews,  one  whom  all  Jewish  people  are  learning  to  love. 
We  are  glad  to  claim  Jesus  as  one  of  our  own  people." 

Dr.  Berkowitz:  "In  Jesus  there  is  the  very  flowering  of 
Judaism,   the  noblest  Rabbi  of  them   all." 

Jacob  SchiflF:  "We  Jews  honor  and  revere  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
as  we  do  our  own  prophets." 

Dr.  Friedlander:  "The  Divine  Son  of  Man,"  and,  "It  is  the 
glory  of  Judaism  to  have  produced  such  a  being." 

Dr.  Kohler:  "The  Jew  of  to-day  beholds  in  Jesus  an  in- 
spiring ideal  of  matchless  beauty.  .  .  .  The  very  sign  of  the 
cross  has  lent  a  new  meaning,  a  holier  pathos  to  suffering,  sick- 
ness and  sin.  .  .  .  All  this,  modern  Judaism  gladly  acknowl- 
edges, reclaiming  Jesus  as  one  of  its  greatest  sons." 

Dr.  Max  Nordau:  "Jesus  is  the  soul  of  our  soul,  flesh  of 
our  flesh.  Who,  then,  could  think  of  excluding  Him  from  the 
people  of  Israel?  St.  Peter  will  remain  the  only  Jew  who  said 
of  the  Son  of  David,  I  know  not  the  man." 

Rabbi  Stephen  Wise:  "  In  reappropriating  their  elder  brother, 
Jesus,  the  Jews  of  to-day  are  not  urging  a  single  step  towards 
Christianity,  but  accepting  the  Jewish  teaching  of  Christ,  the 
Jew,  a  teacher,  a  leader,  a  prophet,  clear-visioned,  tenderly 
loving,  unselfish,  godlike  though  not  uniquely  godly,  and  not 
humanly  divine,  but  divinely  human." 


132     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

would  easily  result  in  a  nation-wide  recognition  of 
this  most  valuable  educational  asset  known  to 
mankind. 

President  Woodrow  Wilson,  with  a  prophetic 
insight  into  national  conditions  and  needs,  has  re- 
cently given  expression  to  this  conviction  — 
"  There  are  problems  which  will  need  purity  and 
an  integrity  of  purpose  such  as  have  never  been 
called  for  before  in  the  history  of  this  country. 
I  should  be  afraid  to  go  forward  if  I  did  not  be- 
lieve that  there  lay  at  the  foundation  of  all  our 
schooling  and  all  our  thought  the  incomparable 
and  unimpeachable  Word  of  God." 

I  should  be  unjust  to  my  deepest  convictions,  if 
I  did  not  in  closing  this  paper  reassert  and  em- 
phasize my  belief  in  the  Bible  as  the  inspired 
Word  of  God,  a  divine  Revelation  indeed,  worthy 
of  all  acceptation,  to  continue  to  the  end  of  time 
to  make  known  to  mankind  the  gracious  purpose 
and  will  of  God,  to  show  to  sinning  men  how  they 
can  be  reconciled  to  God  through  penitence  and 
faith  in  an  atoning  Saviour,  how  they  can  live 
righteously,  meet  successfully  life's  high  demands, 
bear  triumphantly  the  ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir, 
attain  unto  the  stature  of  perfect  manhood,  and 
die  in  the  peaceful  assurance  of  a  blessed  immor- 
tality. It  was  S.  T.  Coleridge  who  said,  "  I 
know  the  Bible  is  inspired,  because  it  finds  me  at 


THE  BIBLE  133 

greater  depths  of  my  being  than  any  other  book." 
Experience  is  the  test  of  truth.  Millions  in  the 
past,  and  millions  more  in  the  present  have  tested 
the  power  of  the  religion  of  Christ  to  meet  the 
deepest  needs  of  the  human  heart,  and  have  not 
found  it  to  fail.  A  recent  English  writer  has 
said,  "  Such,  then,  is  the  fourfold  deepest  need 
of  the  human  heart;  God's  peace,  to  lead  us  into 
a  truer  and  more  assured  conception  both  of 
righteousness  and  sin;  God's  peace  and  reconcil- 
iation, to  restore  us  to  right  relations  to  Himself 
and  to  his  will;  God's  love,  to  dower  the  heart 
with  plenary  joy  and  hope,  and  a  sense  of  over- 
flowing fullness  and  sufficiency;  and  God's 
strength  passing  into  our  weakness,  to  fortify  us 
in  duty,  to  uphold  us  in  conflict  with  evil,  and  to 
assure  us  final  victory  in  the  battle  of  a  good  and 
godly  life.  A  religion  that  can  adapt  itself  to  all 
these  moral  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  heart,  in 
the  sense  of  recognizing  them,  meeting  them, 
supplying  them  all  to  the  full,  and  leaving  noth- 
ing wanting  to  constitute  itself  the  light  and  the 
peace  and  the  joy  and  the  strength  and  the  hope 
of  all  human  existence  in  life  and  in  death,  such  a 
religion,  it  is  plain,  must  as  a  practical  religion  be 
absolutely  perfect." 

That  religion  is  the  Christian  religion.     The 


134     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Christian  religion  is  revealed  in  a  Book.     That 
Book  is  the  Bible. 

"  Father  of  mercies,  in  thy  Word 

What  endless  glory  shines! 
Forever  be  thy  name  adored 

For  these  celestial  lines. 
Oh,  may  these  heavenly  pages  be 

My  ever  dear  delight! 
And  still  new  beauties  may  I  see, 

And  still  increasing  light!  " 

The  vivid  imagination  of  Edward  Everett 
Hale  portrayed  the  pitiable  condition  of  "  a  man 
without  a  country."  Only  the  pen  of  inspiration 
can  depict  the  infinitely  more  deplorable  condi- 
tion of  a  man  or  a  country  that  should  try  to  live 
without  the  knowledge  of  God  and  his  revealed 
will. 


CHAFFER  III 

THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST    IN    THE    NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

THE  nineteenth  century  is  universally  re- 
garded as  a  century  of  remarkable  progress. 
No  one  questions  for  an  instant  that  in  discovery, 
in  invention,  in  the  arts  of  living,  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth,  in  all  lines  of  material  advance- 
ment and  prosperity,  the  last  century  surpasses 
any  century  in  the  world's  history  of  which  we 
have  knowledge.  All  the  forces  of  nature  have 
been  harnessed  to  the  car  of  human  progress. 
When  we  think  of  the  limitations  of  the  fathers 
who  lived  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  almost  entire 
absence  of  luxuries  and  even  of  conveniences 
which  we  now  regard  as  necessities,  of  the  use  of 
steam,  of  gas,  of  electricity,  the  steamship,  the 
railroad,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  phrase 
res  angusta  dom't,  which  was  descriptive  of  gen- 
eral conditions  at  that  time,  seems  painfully  im- 
pressive. We  wonder  as  we  try  to  recall  their 
simple,  circumscribed  life,  how  the  people  of  that 
generation  managed  to  live  and  take  comfort  in 

135 


136     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

life,  and  we  thank  God  that  "  the  lines  have  fallen 
to  us  in  pleasant  places,  and  that  we  have  a  goodly 
heritage."  As  someone  has  truly  said,  we  do 
not  now  exist,  we  live.  Knowledge  has  certainly 
"  grown  from  more  to  more,"  especially  the 
knowledge  of  the  natural  sciences  and  their  appli- 
cation to  the  needs  of  modern  life,  and  also  of 
other  peoples  and  lands.  Buried  cities  have  been 
exhumed  and  brought  to  light.  There  are  no 
longer  hermit  nations  and  dark  continents. 

The  question  may  be  asked,  has  the  religion  of 
the  people  participated  in  the  progress  of  the  last 
century?  Has  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  using 
the  term  as  descriptive  of  the  varied  visible  forms 
of  organized  Christianity,  in  any  degree  lived  up 
to  Its  responsibilities?  Has  It  shared  in  the  gen- 
eral activity  that  has  been  going  on  around  It? 
What  has  it  to  show  that  Is  proof  of  the  divine 
life  which  it  professes  to  possess,  and  that  will 
make  a  creditable  chapter  in  its  history?  Of 
course,  no  one  can  claim  that  the  religion  of  the 
people  has  been  as  active,  as  aggressive,  and  as 
abundant  In  achievement  as  It  might  have  been, 
and  ought  to  have  been,  that  the  Christian  church 
has  made  the  progress  which  with  God's  help  was 
possible,  and  has  molded  the  Ideals,  and  minis- 
tered to  the  needs,  and  lifted  the  life  of  the  people 
as  a  conscientious  fidelity  to  its  divine  commission 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       137 

would  have  enabled  it  to  do.  All  human  works 
are  marked  by  imperfection.  Whatever  man's 
hand  touches  is  doomed  to  weakness.  No  man 
and  no  church  ever  attains  in  this  world  unto  its 
ideal  of  life  and  service.  "  Our  own  hearts  con- 
demn us." 

But  this  should  not  prevent  us  from  recognizing 
the  achievements  of  the  past,  and  thanking  God 
for  whatever  of  success  and  prosperity  has  been 
secured.  Inhere  is  a  tendency  at  the  present  time 
to  speak  disparagingly  of  the  past,  to  ignore  what 
the  church  has  accomplished,  to  criticise  sharply, 
even  censoriously,  its  spirit  and  methods,  and  even 
its  ideals  and  doctrinal  standards,  for  the  purpose, 
it  may  be  hoped,  of  arousing  it  to  new  zeal,  in- 
creasing its  activity  and  usefulness,  and  giving  to 
it  a  broader  vision  of  its  Christ-given  mission  and 
the  means  and  methods  by  which  it  is  to  be  ac- 
complished. But  a  wise  father  is  wont  to  com- 
mend his  son  for  what  he  has  tried  to  do  well,  if 
he  desires  to  encourage  him  to  do  better.  He 
who  has  only  words  of  severe  and  unrighteous 
condemnation  for  past  effort  and  its  measure  of 
success,  is  little  likely  to  stimulate  to  increased 
effort  and  fidelity.  Much  of  the  sharp  and  un- 
pardonable criticism  which  is  being  poured  upon 
the  Christian  church  to-day  grows  out  of  a  pro- 
found ignorance  of  its  spirit  and  efforts,   its  in- 


138     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

fluence  and  progress,  or  of  a  bitter  hostility  to  it 
as  a  divine  institution.  Moreover,  for  a  man  to 
blind  his  eyes  to  the  luminous  record  of  the 
church's  past  achievements  and  its  present  moral 
and  spiritual  power  in  the  world,  is  to  refuse  to 
honor  God,  who  by  his  indwelling  and  outwork- 
ing Spirit  has  made  it  a  mighty  leaven  for  the 
regeneration  of  individual  life  and  the  purifica- 
tion and  improvement  of  social  customs  and  con- 
ditions. When  all  the  facts  are  remembered,  it 
may  be  said  without  fear  of  successful  contradic- 
tion that  the  nineteenth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  has  been  unequaled  in  moral  and  spiritual 
achievement,  as  well  as  in  material  progress,  by 
any  century  that  has  preceded  it,  that  the  church 
of  Christ  in  activity,  in  aggressiveness,  in  numer- 
ical growth  and  in  its  moral  standards,  has  come 
nearer  to  fulfilling  the  divine  purpose  and  the  lofty 
ideals  of  its  Founder  than  at  any  period,  at  least 
since  the  third  century.  Prof.  Charles  R.  Erd- 
man  of  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary 
says,  "  The  last  century  of  Christian  history  has 
been  characterized  by  notable  achievements  in  var- 
ious spheres  of  religious  thought  and  endeavor. 
It  has  been  an  era  of  great  activity  in  Biblical  and 
theological  science,  of  marked  development  in 
philanthropic  and  social  service,  of  unequaled 
progress  in  evangelical  and  missionary  work.     All 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        139 

these  activities  have  been  manifestations  of  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  church.  In  its  essence  this 
life  has  been  the  same  in  all  ages,  however  varied 
may  have  been  its  providential  expressions  and  em- 
bodiments." 

Take  for  instance  its  obedience  to  Christ's  final 
commission  to  "  make  disciples  of  all  nations." 
The  last  century  has  been  preeminently  the  mis- 
sionary century.  At  its  beginning  the  church 
which,  as  a  whole,  had  been  sleeping,  awoke  to  a 
new  appreciation  of  Christ  and  spiritual  religion, 
and  a  new  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  nations 
that  sit  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death. 
Thousands  of  men  and  women  have  heard  the 
call  of  God  and  have  gone  forth  to  labor  and  to 
die  that  they  might  bear  witness  to  Him  who  gave 
his  life  for  the  life  of  the  world,  and  billions  of 
dollars  have  been  laid  upon  God's  altar  for  their 
sending  and  their  support.  As  the  result  of  this 
heroic  consecration  and  willing  sacrifice,  within 
the  hundred  years  all  the  great  heathen  nations 
have  been  visited,  Christianity  has  laid  permanent 
foundations  in  all  lands,  churches  and  schools 
and  hospitals  have  been  established,  the  Word 
of  God  has  been  translated  into  hundreds  of 
tongues,  an  efficient  native  ministry  has  been 
raised  up  and  educated,  and  already  millions  have 
been    converted    and    other    millions    have    been' 


I40     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ. 

It  has  been  stated  that  "  There  have  been  three 
times  as  many  adherents  added  to  Christianity 
during  the  last  century  as  during  the  first  sixteen 
centuries  of  its  existence.  Only  thirty-six  per 
cent,  of  the  world's  population  were  governed  by 
Christians  in  1786,  now  more  than  fifty-five  per 
cent.  In  300  years  Christian  Powers  have  in- 
creased the  territory  under  their  rule  from  seven 
per  cent,  of  the  world's  surface  to  eighty-two  per 
cent.  In  view  of  these  figures  we  feel  that  not 
only  is  Christian  faith  not  on  the  decline,  but  that 
it  is  growing  with  great  rapidity,  and  that  Dr. 
Dorchester  has  truly  expressed  it  when  he  said, 
"  No  intelligent  person  standing  in  the  light  of  the 
last  four  centuries  and  beholding  the  great  re- 
ligious movements  of  this  age,  can  doubt  that 
Christianity  is  advancing.  Every  year  it  is  rob- 
ing itself  with  new  effulgence  and  pouring  its 
blessed  illumination  upon  new  millions  of  earth's 
population." 

The  hoary  religious  systems  of  the  far  East 
are  being  rapidly  undermined  by  the  Gospel  of 
Christ;  their  crude  moralities  are  giving  place  to 
the  purer  ethics  of  Christianity;  and  in  one  in- 
stance, in  the  largest  and  most  conspicuous  na- 
tion of  all,  the  form  of  government  has  yielded 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        141 

under  practically  Christian  leadership  to  the  en- 
lightening influence  of  the  advanced  Christian 
civilization  of  the  West.  An  English  correspond- 
ent after  a  prolonged  visit  to  China,  declared, 
"  The  missionaries  are  the  men  who  began  the 
work  of  awakening  China.  .  .  .  Their  work  Is 
not  to  be  measured  by  their  enrolled  converts. 
.  .  .  They  have  been  not  only  the  teachers  of 
religion,  but  the  advance  agents  of  civilization." 
The  leaven  of  the  one  true  religion  has  been  In- 
troduced, and  even  though  the  aid  of  Christian 
lands  should  now  be  withheld,  the  spiritual  leaven 
of  revealed  and  transforming  truth  would  un- 
doubtedly go  on  working  until  the  whole  lump  of 
heathenism  is  leavened.  Sir  Monier  Monier- 
WlUiams  affirmed  thirty  years  ago  that,  "  The 
present  condition  of  India  seems  very  similar  to 
that  of  the  Roman  Empire  before  the  coming  of 
Christ.  A  complete  disintegration  of  ancient 
faiths  Is  In  progress  in  the  upper  strata  of  society. 
Most  of  the  ablest  thinkers  become  pure  Theists 
or  Unitarians.  In  almost  every  large  town  there 
is  a  Samaj  or  society  of  such  men,  whose  creed 
would  be  well  expressed  by  the  first  part  of  the 
first  article  of  the  Church  of  England."  And 
Cheshub  Chunder  Sen  has  asserted  that  "  Buddha 
no  longer  rules  in  India  but  Jesus  Christ." 

A  Professor  in  one  of  the  Universities  of  Japan 


142     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

recently  declared,  "  No  man  can  estimate  the  con- 
tribution which  Christianity  has  made  to  Japan. 
.  .  .  Japan  has  taken  the  best  of  everything  found 
in  Western  civilization,  and  she  must  take  the  best 
in  religion." 

As  showing  the  present  missionary  activity  an 
American  journal  recently  published  the  follow- 
ing facts — "At  the  close  of  the  year  1911,  the 
total  missionary  funds  raised  by  the  various  Pro- 
testant missionary  organizations  here  and  abroad 
for  work  in  heathen  lands  were  $25,297,074.00. 
With  this  magnificent  annual  offering,  support 
was  furnished  for  22,058  white  missionaries  and 
'88,542  native  helpers,  teachers,  pastors,  Bible 
women  and  evangelists,  at  49,579  different  mis- 
sionary stations  in  India,  Africa,  Japan,  China, 
Burma,  Siam,  the  Arctic,  South  America  and 
Polynesia.  The  missions  had  an  enrolled  list  of 
4,875,454  adherents  professing  Christian  belief, 
of  whom  2,304,308  were  communicants.  In  the 
same  year  there  were  1,477,049  children  in  the 
various  missionary  schools.  The  United  States 
contributed  nearly  one-half  of  the  total  fund  for 
conducting  the  whole  work,  having  raised  last  year 
$12,290,005.00  for  missions." 

The  work  which  has  been  accomplished,  great 
as  it  is,  is  not  so  great  a  work  by  a  vast  deal  as 
would  have  been  achieved,   if  every  disciple  of 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        143 

Christ  had  been  fully  consecrated  and  every  power 
had  been  laid  upon  the  altar  of  service  for  the 
world's  Redeemer;  but  it  bears  witness  to  the 
commendable  missionary  spirit  of  the  church  which 
has  characterized  the  nineteenth  century. 

It  should  be  added  (what  of  course  was  inevi- 
table) that  the  home  missionary  spirit  in  Christian 
lands  has  moved  on  with  equal  and  even  greater 
pace  during  this  period,  and  has  been  rewarded 
with  splendid  results.  If  we  confine  our  obser- 
vation to  our  own  land,  with  which  we  are  most 
familiar,  we  find  that  every  evangelical  denomina- 
tion has  been  stirred  to  increasing  activity,  and 
has  organized  vigorous  missionary  societies,  city, 
state,  and  national,  ministering  indiscriminately 
to  the  needy  native  and  foreign  populations,  car- 
ing for  the  aboriginal  tribes  which  still  remain, 
the  native  born  settlers  who  are  pushing  Westward 
the  course  of  empire,  the  destitute  freedmen  of  the 
south,  and  the  swelling  tides  of  immigrant 
population  that  are  flooding  our  cities  and  sweep- 
ing into  the  Western  prairies.  The  church  was 
never  so  responsive  as  it  is  to-day  to  the  appeal 
of  the  destitute  rural  sections  of  our  country  and 
the  more  imperative  challenge  of  the  city.  It  seeks 
to  embrace  in  the  ever  widening  scope  of  its  ac- 
tivity all  conditions  of  people,  all  localities  and  all 
nationalities,   and   God's  blessing  has  been,   and 


144     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

still  is,  on  it  all.  The  Baptist  denomination  in 
this  country  may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  growth 
as  well  as  of  service.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  it  numbered  75,000  or  80,000 
members;  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
number  of  communicants  had  swollen  to  more 
than  five  millions.  The  churches  of  Christ  have 
not  been  wholly  indifferent  to  their  solemn  duty 
and  privilege,  and  surely  God  has  given  the  in- 
crease. Great  spiritual  awakenings  in  response 
to  prayer  and  earnest  effort  have  been  expe- 
rienced at  frequent  intervals,  and  Pentecost  has 
been  repeated  again  and  again.  While  the 
churches  humble  themselves  before  God  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  they  have  not  done  more,  may 
they  not  also  praise  Him  that  He  has  enabled 
them  to  do  so  much,  and  especially  for  the 
strengthening  purpose  increasingly  manifest  to  go 
forward  to  the  conquest  of  this  land  and  of  all 
lands  for  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ? 

The  nineteenth  century  has  been  also  the  great 
educational  century  in  this  country.  In  the  year 
1800  there  were  but  few  colleges  and  institu- 
tions for  higher  education  among  us,  and  those 
were  poorly  endowed.  No  college  had  yet  been 
founded  for  young  women.  At  the  present  time 
almost  every  State  has  a  college  of  its  own.  Some 
of  them  have   several  colleges  representing  dif- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        145 

ferent  denominations  of  Christians.  Separate 
colleges  for  women  are  numerous,  and  doors  open 
to  both  sexes  are  found  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
The  little  faculty  of  a  half  dozen  professors  has 
grown  in  many  instances  to  hundreds,  and  the 
meager  endowments  now  amount  to  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  The  most  of  these  institu- 
tions, all  except  the  State  Institutions,  have  been 
founded,  and  supported,  and  endowed  by  private 
benevolence,  a  benevolence  which  has  been  born 
of  prayer  and  kindled  in  the  churches  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Christian  men  and  women  contributing 
often  out  of  their  poverty  that  knowledge  may  be 
placed  within  the  reach  of  all  the  youth  of  the 
land,  and  that  an  educated  ministry  may  be  raised 
up  to  be  the  leaders  of  our  churches  and  guides 
of  the  people  in  the  way  of  true  wisdom.  Some 
gifts  for  educational  purposes  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  century  have  been  little  less  than  fabulous,  and 
are  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  motto  of  Harvard  University,  the  oldest  of 
them  all,  Christo  et  Ecclesiac,  may  be  truthfully 
inscribed  over  every  college  gateway,  as  expres- 
sive of  the  Christian  spirit  and  purpose  of  its 
founders.  Surely  a  Christianity  which  has 
brought  forth  such  rich  and  abundant  fruit  has  ac- 
complished something  for  the  enlightenment  of 
mankind,   and  is  worthy  of  grateful  recognition 


146     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

as  one  of  the  potent  forces  in  our  advancing  civili- 
zation. 

That  eminent  litterateur,  Bliss  Perry,  says, 
"  American  faith  in  education,  as  all  the  world 
knows,  has  from  the  beginning  gone  hand  in  hand 
with  faith  in  religion;  the  school-house  was  almost 
as  sacred  a  symbol  as  the  meeting-house;  and  the 
munificence  of  American  private  benefactions  to 
the  cause  of  education  furnishes  to-day  one  of  the 
most  striking  instances  of  idealism  in  the  history 
of  civilization." 

It  should  be  remembered  that  even  the  State 
colleges  and  universities  which  have  been  founded 
and  are  supported  by  public  funds,  have  been 
created  by  an  appreciation  of  the  value  and  neces- 
sity of  higher  education  for  the  welfare  and  prog- 
ress of  the  people,  which  has  been  fostered  by 
the  churches  of  Jesus  Christ.  President  James  B. 
Angell  says,  in  "  Selected  Addresses,"  "  For  the 
most  part  the  direction  of  education  has  been  in 
the  hands  of  the  church.  Now  whatever  criti- 
cism may  be  made  upon  the  church  through  these 
eighteen  centuries,  she  has  with  impartial  hand 
held  wide  open  to  men,  of  high  and  of  low  degree 
alike,  the  gates  of  generous  learning.  She  has 
encouraged  and  persuaded  the  rich  to  endow  her 
schools  and  colleges  and  universities,  so  that  the 
instruction  might  be  almost,  if  not  entirely,  free. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       147 

She  has  taught  them  to  found  scholarships,  which 
would  enable  the  poorest  boy  to  spend  the  best 
years  of  his  youth  and  manhood  in  the  still  air  of 
delightful  study."  He  might  have  added,  should 
a  Professor  in  a  college  so  far  forget  himself  as 
to  speak  disparagingly  of  the  Christian  church, 
he  is  ungratefully  condemning  the  generous  bene- 
factor to  which  he  is  indebted  for  his  education, 
his  living  and  his  opportunity. 

But  our  churches  through  their  inspired  rep- 
resentatives have  not  only  been  in  most  wise  and 
generous  ways  seeking  to  overcome  the  ignorance 
of  the  world,  but  they  have  been  faithfully  and 
sympathetically  ministering  to  the  want,  the  sor- 
row and  the  misery  of  the  world  which  they  have 
seen  about  them,  and  are  doing  it  to-day  with  an 
increasing  zeal  and  a  far  reaching  activity.  The 
nineteenth  century  may  be  characterized  as  par 
excellence  the  philanthropic  century.  There  never 
was  a  time  when  the  disciples  of  Christ  followed 
more  closely  or  in  greater  numbers  in  the  foot- 
steps of  their  divine  Master,  who  ever  went  about 
doing  good,  than  during  these  recent  years. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  the  practical  sympa- 
thy of  Christ  found  more  beautiful  or  abundant 
illustrations  than  in  our  day.  It  is  true,  painfully 
true,  that  selfishness  and  forgetfulness  and  cold- 
ness still  live  in  too  many  hearts  which  profess  to 


148     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

have  been  warmed  by  the  love  of  the  Saviour. 
But  the  church  as  a  whole  has  proved  itself  to  be 
the  friend  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  suffering,  the 
wandering,  the  needy  of  all  classes  and  conditions, 
and  its  members  have  gone  forth  to  found  not 
only  institutions  of  learning,  but  institutions  of 
charity  and  philanthropy  of  every  name,  hospi- 
tals, asylums,  homes  for  the  aged,  the  orphan, 
the  friendless  and  the  wayward.  All  those  whom 
the  heathen  and  Christless  world  has  neglected  and 
abandoned,  the  Christian  church  has  adopted  as 
its  peculiar  care.  These  are  some  of  the  things 
that  distinguish  our  Christian  civilization  and 
make  it  Christian. 

A  well  known  English  writer  has  truthfully 
said,  "  All  that  we  call  modern  civilization  in  a 
sense  which  deserves  the  name,  is  the  visible  ex- 
pression of  the  transforming  power  of  the  Gos- 
pel." 

Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  has  recently  declared,  in 
"  My  Fifty  Years  as  a  Minister,"  "  Looking  back 
upon  the  history  of  the  church  or  abroad  upon  its 
present  work,  the  church  is  seen  as  an  inspiration 
to  practical  helpfulness.  The  church  was  the 
first  distributor  of  charity  to  the  poor;  the  first 
builder  of  hospitals  and  asylums;  the  first  minister 
to  the  sick  and  suffering;  the  first  founder  of 
schools  for  the  education  of  the  common  people. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       149 

And  it  is  still.  It  is  the  church  which  has  sent 
doctors  and  teachers  to  foreign  lands;  the  church 
which  has  introduced  medicine  and  surgery  into 
China,  India,  Africa;  the  church  which  has  es- 
tablished, first,  schools  for  the  primary  education 
of  the  children,  and  then,  colleges  for  the  higher 
education  of  adults,  in  lands  where  there  was  either 
no  educational  system,  as  in  India,  or  none  which 
really  educated,  as  in  China.  It  was  to  the  church 
that  the  army  looked  in  the  Civ^il  War  for  the  es- 
tablishment and  maintenance  of  the  Christian  and 
Sanitary  Commissions;  it  was  to  the  church  that, 
after  great  battles,  calls  were  sent  for  bandages, 
medicines,  nurses,  doctors  and  delicacies  for  the 
hospitals. 

That  the  world  agrees  with  me  in  thinking  that 
the  churches  are  springs  of  practical  benevolence 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  pastor  of  every 
town  and  city  church  of  any  considerable  size  gets 
every  month,  often  two  or  three  times  a  month 
(and  often  two  or  three  times  a  week)  appeals  for 
help  for  some  practical  benevolence  or  some  moral 
reform." 

And  not  only  by  organized  institutions  of  Chris- 
tian charity,  but  by  a  quiet  personal  ministry  of 
which  every  pastor  knows.  Christian  men  and 
women  are  busy  performing  deeds  of  mercy,  help- 
fulness   and    love.     There    are    undoubtedly    in- 


150     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

stances  of  suffering  which  do  not  come  to  the  eye 
of  the  Christian  pubHc,  and  distressing  cries  which 
reach  no  ear.  There  are  conditions  which  can 
be  changed  and  Improved  only  by  wise  and  author- 
itative legislation,  which  can  be  brought  about  only 
by  slow  processes.  But  the  great  body  of  the 
church,  in  spite  of  some  unworthy  exceptions,  are 
animated  to  a  good  degree  by  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
or  at  least  by  a  sincere  purpose  to  walk  worthy  of 
their  high  calling.  It  is  this  that  furnishes  the 
basis  for  the  hope  that  as  the  religion  of  Jesus  con- 
trols the  spirit  and  the  conduct  of  men,  there  will 
be  realized  on  earth  the  divine  ideal  of  human 
brotherhood. 

An  American  professor  and  writer  on  Socialism 
is  reported  to  have  said  in  an  address  before  a 
Christian  Convention,  "  Throughout  Western 
Christendom  there  has  been  a  long  struggle  of  the 
people  towards  political  liberty  and  social  brother- 
hood. It  was  often  blind,  sinful,  brutal,  as  every 
great  movement  of  humanity  has  always  been. 
Yet  God  was  in  it.  But  the  churches  that  exist 
for  the  very  purpose  of  establishing  the  reign  of 
justice,  peace  and  brotherhood  have  with  fatal 
persistence  ranged  themselves  on  the  other  side. 
This  is  the  great  moral  stumbling  block  beside 
which  all  intellectual  difficulties  of  belief  in  Chris- 
tian doctrine  are  insignificant.      It  has  produced 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       151 

more  alienation  from  religion  than  all  other  causes 
combined."  If  this  accusation  means  or  includes 
Christendom  in  this  Western  hemisphere  it  is 
utterly  without  foundation.  Here  social  brother- 
hood has  to  a  large  degree  accompanied  political 
liberty.  The  churches  of  the  largest  denomina- 
tions in  the  United  States  are  practically  social 
democracies.  Their  members  to  a  very  large  ex- 
tent belong  to  the  humbler  walks  in  life,  to  the 
laboring  classes,  or  are  those  who  have  limited  in- 
comes. There  are  few  millionaires  or  semi-mil- 
lionaires among  them,  and  those  are  not  the  in- 
heritors of  large  unearned  properties,  but  such  as 
have  come  up  from  the  lower  strata  of  society, 
and  by  industry,  economy,  thrift  and,  for  the  most 
part,  honest  toil  and  enterprise  have  accumulated 
what  they  possess.  It  can  be  asserted  confidently 
that  the  sympathies  of  the  churches  are  uniformly 
with  the  laboring  classes,  when  they  observe  the 
laws  of  the  land  and  the  rights  of  others,  and  do 
not  *'  blindly,  sinfully,  brutally "  endanger  the 
peace  and  stability  of  the  social  order.  Anything 
else  is  inconceivable,  for  the  members  of  the 
churches  are  largely  the  laboring  classes. 

There  is  sometimes  manifested  an  unjust  and 
unreasonable  antagonism  against  wealth  and  those 
who  possess  it,  without  which  all  commerce  and 
industry  and  large  philanthropy  and  missionary 


152     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

enterprise  would  be  impossible,  and  society  would 
resolve  itself  into  a  lifeless  and  unprogressive 
agrarianism.  We  are  living  in  a  time  of  extrav- 
agant, not  to  say  insane  assertions.  Some  would- 
be  leaders  in  this  social  crisis  seem  to  care  not  so 
much  to  instruct  wisely  and  to  generate  calmness 
of  judgment,  as  to  arouse  unrest  and  passion  and 
class-hostility.  A  Christian  minister  who  had 
abandoned  the  pulpit  for  the  socialist's  platform, 
publicly  declared  that  "  Every  poor  man  is  a 
robbed  man,"  an  assertion  as  absurd  and  inde- 
fensible as  it  is  criminal  and  dangerous.  Poverty 
is  often  the  result  of  incompetence,  folly  or  waste- 
ful dissipation.  A.  C.  Benson  is  authority  for  the 
following  Incident  in  the  life  of  Charles  Kingsley. 
He  was  once  traveling  in  the  United  States  and 
met  a  newspaper  editor  who  said  to  him,  "  Mr. 
Kingsley,  I  hear  you  are  a  democrat.  Well,  so 
am  I.  My  motto  Is,  Whenever  you  see  a  head 
above  the  crowd,  hit  it."  "  Good  heavens!  "  said 
Kingsley,  commenting  upon  the  remark,  "  what  a 
ghastly  conception  of  human  equality,  to  attempt, 
not  to  raise  everyone  to  the  level  of  the  best,  but 
to  boycott  all  force,  all  originality,  all  nobility, 
and  to  reduce  all  to  a  dead  level!  If  that  is  de- 
mocracy, I  am  no  democrat."  That  pugilistic  edi- 
tor seems  to  have  a  large  following,  all  of  whom 
do  not  occupy  editors'  chairs;  whose  conception  of 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        153 

democracy  is  the  overthrow  of  the  prosperous  in 
order  to  exalt  the  less  favored,  whose  method  is  a 
leveling  down  instead  of  a  leveling  up,  and  who 
mistake  violent  hostility  against  the  rich  for  gen- 
uine and  helpful  sympathy  for  the  poor.  Unless 
there  can  be  a  wiser  spirit  introduced  into  the 
discussion  of  social  questions,  and  the  use  of  more 
temperate  and  saner  language,  the  discussion  will 
not  only  be  utterly  futile  of  good,  but  will  lead  to 
widespread  social  disaster.  Some  teachers  and 
preachers  who  profess  to  be  the  friends  of  the 
church  and  the  social  order,  are  proving  themselves 
to  be  the  worst  enemies  of  both  by  their  unwar- 
ranted and  incendiary  language.  They  are  blind 
leaders  of  the  blind,  aye,  worse,  they  are  playing 
with  the  inflammable  passions  of  men,  and  inciting 
to  riot  and  anarchy.  What  is  needed  is  not  aliena- 
tion and  distrust  and  enmity,  but  mutual  under- 
standing and  sympathy  and  good  will. 

A  recent  writer,  himself  a  Christian  teacher, 
discussing  the  church  and  socialism,  says,  "  The 
church  is  to-day  in  large  part  a  collection  of  people 
who  thank  God  that  they  are  not  as  others  — 
even  as  this  socialist!  The  indifferent  Priest  and 
the  hard  hearted  Levite  still  throng  the  highways, 
but  to  many  a  man  who  has  fallen  among  robbers, 
and  has  been  bruised  and  beaten  and  left  half 
dead,  no  good  Samaritan  comes  with  his  oil  and 


154     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

wine.  The  church  is  too  busy  holding  conven- 
tions and  saving  the  heathen  to  attend  to  such 
small  matters  at  its  doors."  Such  language  com- 
ing from  the  pen  of  an  infidel  and  a  bitter  and 
mentally  and  morally  unbalanced  socialist  would 
not  be  surprising,  for  he  hates  both  the  church  and 
missions  to  the  heathen.  But  a  sober  second 
thought  on  the  part  of  the  author  and  a  better 
acquaintance  with  the  Immense  and  increasing  ac- 
tivity on  the  part  of  many  of  our  churches  In 
ministering  "  oil  and  wine  "  would  have  prevented 
such  a  wholesale  and  unjust  criticism.  Any  candid 
survey  of  the  philanthropic  and  charitable  move- 
ments of  the  last  century,  and  an  acquaintance  with 
the  work  of  practical  sympathy  In  which  our 
churches  are  constantly  engaged  will  convince  any 
man  that  this  has  been  a  prominent  characteristic 
of  the  visible  life  of  Christianity.  Our  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  and  Young  Women's 
Christian  Associations,  with  all  their  excellent  and 
far  reaching  service,  have  been  generated  by  the 
teaching  of  the  Christian  pulpit,  and  have  been 
sustained  and  made  efficient  by  the  presence,  the 
prayers,  and  the  devotion  of  the  men  and  women 
of  the  churches.  Take  away  that  presence,  and 
those  prayers,  and  that  devotion,  and  their  fine 
buildings,  expensively  equipped,  erected  in  every 
city,  would  quickly  be  in  the  market  for  sale;  in- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       155 

deed  without  these  they  would  never  have  been 
built.  The  truth  is,  that  all  these  existing  philan- 
thropies and  charities  which  are  the  glory  of  our 
modern  civilization,  organizations  and  societies 
of  every  name  for  the  relief  of  suffering  and  for 
moral  prevention,  are  simply  so  many  forms  of 
church-activity.  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  with 
the  religion  which  it  embodies  and  the  life  which 
it  imparts,  is  the  inspiring  and  prolific  mother  of 
them  all.  To  withhold  from  the  church  its  just 
dues  is  as  culpable  as  it  is  to  bring  false  charges 
against  it. 

Professor  William  Adams  Brown  of  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary  states  a  fact  too  little  recog- 
nized, when  he  says,  "  Long  before  our  modern 
economists  had  begun  to  tell  us  of  the  dependence 
of  vice  upon  an  unfavorable  social  environment. 
Christian  missionaries  had  established  in  the  slums 
of  our  great  cities  centers  of  helpfulness  and  sym- 
pathy which  were  a  practical  demonstration  of  this 
truth  .  .  .  And  to  the  darkest  and  most  destitute 
regions  of  the  earth  the  hospital,  the  workshop 
and  the  school  have  been  carried  by  men  and 
women  who  have  been  sustained  in  the  sacrifice 
and  renunciation  which  the  task  required,  by  their 
faith  that  the  little  they  were  able  to  do  to  help 
men  here  was  so  much  contribution  towards  pre- 
paring them  for  an  eternal  destiny."     Again  he 


156     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

says,  "  There  are  many  persons  to-day  who  are 
ready  to  recognize  the  beneficent  work  done  by 
foreign  missionaries  for  the  social  welfare  of  the 
peoples  among  whom  they  have  been  working, 
who  have  no  sympathy  with  the  religious  motives 
which  animate  them.  Why,  they  ask,  can  we  not 
have  the  hospital  and  the  school  without  the  doc- 
trines that  go  with  them?  They  forget  that  it  is 
faith  in  the  realities  which  the  doctrines  express, 
which  alone  has  made  the  missionary  enterprise 
possible.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  belief  that  man 
is  an  immortal  spirit,  capable  of  communion  with 
God  and  meant  for  fellowship  with  Him  through 
all  eternity,  we  should  have  had  no  Livingstone 
or  Moffat  or  Paton." 

Possibly  there  may  be  here  and  there  an  exclu- 
sive, self-centered,  heartless  and  unspiritual 
church,  blind  to  the  great  verities  of  its  professed 
faith,  which  is  irresponsive  to  the  appeal  of  a  lost 
world,  and  holds  himself  aloof  from  the  common 
tide  of  human  life  which  goes  moaning  and  sob- 
bing by.  But  the  general  spirit  of  the  followers 
of  the  divine  Son  of  Man  has  been: 

"  Let  me  live  in  my  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 
And  be  a  friend  to  man." 

The  appeal  of  a  needy  and  distressed  humanity 
has  been  invariably  to  the  Christian  community, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       157 

and  has  not  been  wont  to  be  refused  when  rehef 
was  possible.  It  was  the  dictate  of  the  plainest 
wisdom,  confirmed  by  the  result  of  past  experience, 
that  prompted  the  friends  of  the  ancient  cripple 
to  carry  him  daily  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  and  lay 
him  by  the  Beautiful  Gate  of  the  temple,  where  the 
throngs  of  worshipers  would  pass  to  and  fro. 
It  is  the  religiously  inclined  in  whose  bosoms  the 
divine  sympathy  throbs.  The  friends  of  a  suf- 
fering Christ  are  uniformly  the  friends  of  a  suffer- 
ing humanity. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  influence  of  the 
Christian  church  and  its  teaching  during  the  last 
century  upon  public  and  private  morals?  No  one 
who  is  familiar  with  the  ethical  ideals  of  Jesus 
will  question  their  pure  and  exalted  character  and 
their  insistent  demand  for  righteousness  in  per- 
sonal character  and  in  all  human  conduct  and  re- 
lations. All  ethical  systems  of  acknowledged 
worth  are  based  upon  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
Did  the  church  of  the  nineteenth  century  enforce 
those  teachings  as  part  of  its  divine  message,  or 
was  the  pulpit  ministration  such  as  to  obscure  their 
importance  and  weaken  their  power?  In  other 
words  was  the  evangelicanism  of  the  fathers  non- 
ethical?  This  question  is  raised  by  reason  of  the 
supposed  contrast  between  the  preaching  of  the 
past  and  the  preaching  of  the  present.     Formerly, 


158     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

it  is  said,  the  emphasis  was  laid  upon  doctrine, 
while  now  it  is  laid  upon  practice,  formerly  upon 
creed  and  now  upon  life. 

This  supposed  contrast  is  largely  imaginary, 
and  grows  out  of  an  entire  misapprehension  of 
the  facts.  The  fathers  did  preach  doctrine,  but 
rarely  or  never  as  an  end  in  itself.  It  was  uni- 
formly as  a  means  to  fullness  and  integrity  of  life. 
It  would  be  easy  to  show  from  their  voluminous 
sermons  which  have  been  preserved,  with  their 
numerous  inferences,  applications,  improvements 
and  practical  lessons  that  they  were  not  wont  to 
disconnect  truth  from  life,  doctrine  from  personal 
obedience  and  righteousness.  The  following  clear 
and  distinct  utterance  was  made  as  long  ago  as 
1811  at  the  meeting  of  the  Warren  Baptist  Asso- 
ciation for  that  year,  and  may  be  accepted  as  an 
illustration  of  the  all-round  preaching  which  in 
a  large  degree  characterized  the  century.  The 
italics  are  the  author's.  "  But  while  the  Scriptures 
enjoin  the  absolute  necessity  of  faith  unfeigned, 
with  no  less  decision  do  they  affirm  that  those  who 
believe  must  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works. 
True  faith  always  works  by  love  and  purifies  the 
heart.  Nothing  can  be  adapted  more  effectually 
to  produce  the  fruits  of  righteousness  than  a 
hearty  belief  of  the  truth  exhibited  in  the  Bible. 
The  Gospel  is  a  grand  expedient  in  which  the  wis- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        159 

doni  and  glory  of  Ciod  arc  displayed  in  recovering 
men  from  the  dominion  of  sin.  No  person  can 
have  more  real  religion  than  he  has  practical  re- 
ligion. He  that  doeth  righteousness  is  righteous, 
and  he  only.  The  grace  of  God  which  bringeth 
salvation,  teaches  its  possessors  to  deny  ungodli- 
ness and  worldly  lusts,  and  to  live  soberly,  right- 
eously and  godly  in  this  present  evil  world  .  .  . 
Faith  in  Christ  as  the  root,  and  obedience  to  his 
commands  as  the  branches,  constitute  the  true 
plant  of  our  Heavenly  Father's  planting." 

Christ  taught,  "  You  shall  know  the  truth  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  not  only  free  from 
error  and  superstition,  but  free  from  the  power 
and  dominion  of  sin.  Christ  prayed  for  his  dis- 
ciples in  his  last  recorded  prayer,  "  Sanctify  them 
by  the  truth ;  thy  word  is  truth."  The  fathers  took 
Christ  at  his  word,  believing  that  the  truth  of 
Christ,  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  alone  had  renewing 
and  sanctifying  power.  It  was  not  the  creed  ac- 
cepted merely  by  the  intellect,  but  the  creed 
wrought  into  the  life,  that  they  had  in  view.  Be- 
lievers were  to  be  "  living  epistles."  By  their 
fruits  they  should  be  known  and  judged.  If  they 
preached  the  necessity  of  faith  in  Christ  as  a  di- 
vine Saviour,  it  was  because  He  would  save  his 
people  from  their  sins,  from  their  power  as  well  as 
their  penalty.     If  they  held  up  Christ  on  the  cross 


i6o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

in  full  atonement,  they  joined  believers  in  Christ 
with  Him  in  his  crucifixion,  crying  "  How  shall  we 
who  are  dead  to  sin  live  any  longer  therein?" 
If  they  preached  the  virgin  birth  of  Christ,  they 
proclaimed  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  new  birth 
into  a  spiritual  life  in  order  to  see  the  kingdom  of 
God.  If  they  preached  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
as  the  crowning  article  in  the  Christian  faith,  it 
was  that  men  might  experience  the  moral  power 
of  that  resurrection,  and  rise  to  newness  of  being. 
If  they  preached  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  they  were  quick  to  say,  while  it  is  your  faith 
in  Christ  that  justifies  you  before  God,  it  is  your 
righteous  and  obedient  life  that  will  justify  your 
faith  before  God  and  men.  If  they  preached 
much  of  Heaven  and  its  eternal  glories,  it  was  be- 
cause they  knew  that  no  man  can  live  this  life  as 
he  ought,  without  feeling  the  uplifting  and  sanc- 
tifying power  of  the  world  to  come  constantly  on 
his  soul. 

They  put  first  things  first,  the  cause  before  the 
effect,  the  prescribed  means  before  the  desired  end. 
They  did  emphasize  doctrine  that  they  might  se- 
cure life.  They  did  emphasize  doctrine,  because  to 
ignore  it  was  fatal  to  life.  Christ  said,  "  The  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are 
life."  And  so  they  spoke  them  unto  men,  pregnant 
with  divine  doctrine,  throbbing  with  divine  life, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       i6i 

that  they  might  have  here  and  now  the  true  and 
abundant  life  which  Christ  came  to  give.  Well 
will  it  be  for  the  church  and  the  ministry  of  to-day 
and  to-morrow  and  the  next  day,  if  they  follow  the 
examples  of  the  fathers,  which  brought  large  in- 
crease to  the  people  of  God  and  crowned  the 
century  with  gracious  revivals.  A  leader  in  the 
recent  "  men  and  religion  forward  movement  " 
declared  that  if  his  denomination,  the  Congrega- 
tionalist,  did  not  lay  greater  emphasis  upon  the 
soul's  conversion  by  the  Spirit  and  truth  of  God, 
it  would  soon  die  out.  The  continued  existence 
of  Christian  churches  depends  upon  the  continued 
proclamation  of  revealed  truth  and  the  continued 
insistence  upon  a  vital  spiritual  experience,  which 
consists  in  the  soul's  communion  with  God  through 
a  personal  faith  in  the  crucified  and  risen  Christ. 
Without  these  there  may  be  social  clubs,  fraternal 
orders,  benevolent  societies,  philanthropic  organi- 
zations, but  Christian  churches  after  the  New  Tes- 
tament pattern  are  doomed  to  extinction.  Chris- 
tianity is  doctrine  as  well  as  life,  and  all  permanent 
Christian  life  must  have  its  roots  in  the  unchang- 
ing truth  of  Christ.  Men  will  soon  cease  to  talk 
about  "  applied  Christianity,"  unless  they  con- 
tinue to  hold  fast  to  a  definite,  positive  Christian- 
ity which  they  are  to  apply. 

Doctrinal  preaching  has  always  produced  moral 


i62     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

results.  Froude  in  his  essay  of  "  Calvinism  "  de- 
clared (and  he  cannot  be  charged  with  undue 
prejudice)  that  Calvinism  produced  character,  and 
that  whatever  of  moral  fiber  the  English  and 
Scotch  people  possessed  was  due  to  the  Puritan 
preaching  of  Calvinistic  doctrine.  Froude's 
exact  language  is,  "  Whatever  exists  at  this  mo- 
ment in  England  and  Scotland  of  conscientious 
fear  of  doing  evil  is  the  remnant  of  the  convic- 
tions which  were  branded  by  the  Calvinists  into 
the  people's  hearts."  Dr.  William  E.  Griffis  de- 
clares, "  Calvinism  with  its  democratic  spirit,  in- 
tense love  of  liberty,  high  ideals,  and  austere 
morals  was  mighty  in  shaping  the  minds  of  the 
men  who  made  the  Dutch  Republic,  the  English 
Commonwealth,  New  England  and  the  Scotland 
and  North  Ireland  of  public  schools  and  an  edu- 
cated peasantry."  The  earlier  and  later  testimony 
of  historians  is  in  exact  accord,  and  voices  the  un- 
varying consensus   of  opinion. 

In  a  review  of  a  volume  entitled  "  Nine  Great 
Preachers,"  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Currier,  beginning  with 
Chrysostom  and  ending  with  Phillips  Brooks,  four 
of  whom  are  well  within  the  memory  of  living 
men,  viz.,  Robertson,  Beecher,  Maclaren  and 
Brooks,  it  is  said,  "  The  boldness  with  which  all 
these  preachers  denounced  the  sins  of  their  times 
IS  strikingly  apparent  in  these  biographies;  while 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       163 

the  elevated  standard  of  morality  which  they  pro- 
claimed shows  them  all,  and  the  class  to  which 
they  belong,  to  be  lineal  descendants  of  the  great 
lawgiver  of  Israel,  who  by  divine  sanctions  en- 
forced a  morality  far  higher  than  any  which  can 
be  obtained  by  mere  legal  enactments."  Certainly 
in  the  preaching  of  the  great  preachers  of  the 
church  doctrine  and  ethics  have  not  been  di- 
vorced. 

The  results  of  doctrinal  preaching  have  been 
seen  in  a  positive  as  well  as  negative  morality. 
The  nineteenth  century  revealed  in  several  respects 
a  remarkable  progress  in  moral  sentiment  in  our 
country.  The  system  of  human  slavery,  which 
had  rested  like  a  menacing  curse  upon  the  land, 
and  came  near  dismembering  the  nation,  went 
down,  not  so  much  by  reason  of  the  demand  of  the 
Civil  War  (that  was  only  the  providential  occa- 
sion) as  before  the  uprising  and  onward  march  of 
aroused  moral  sentiment.  The  abolitionists  had 
their  mission,  but  the  growing  sense  of  the  injustice 
and  wrong  of  the  system,  felt  by  many  Christians 
in  the  South  as  well  as  the  North,  voiced  in  many 
Christian  pulpits,  journals  and  conventions,  was 
at  last  victorious,  and  the  abnormal  institution 
disappeared  forever  from  our  free  land. 

Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  to  quote  again  from  his 
Reminiscences  which  refer  to  the  history  of  both 


i64    THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  temperance  and  the  slavery  agitations,  says, 
"  That  the  church  has  sometimes  been  laggard  in 
moral  reform  movements  is  true;  but  it  is  not 
true,  as  is  sometimes  affirmed,  that  it  has  been  in- 
different. Dr.  Lyman  Beecher's  '  Six  Sermons  on 
Temperance  '  were  among  the  causes  which 
brought  about  the  great  temperance  movement  in 
this  country.  There  was  not  in  the  anti-slavery 
reform,  from  any  body  of  lawyers,  doctors,  mer- 
chants or  scientists,  any  utterances  analogous  to 
the  petition  signed  by  three  thousand  clergymen  of 
New  England  against  the  Nebraska  Bill,  allowing 
the  extension  of  slavery."  These  are  specimen 
illustrations  of  moral  sentiment  which  was  finding 
expression  in  pulpit  and  pew  constantly  during 
the  last  century. 

As  early  as  1787  the  Warren  Baptist  Associa- 
tion which  embraced  the  Baptist  churches  through- 
out New  England,  passed  a  resolution  condemning 
the  traffic  In  slaves.  This  is  thought  to  be  the 
earliest  of  many  denunciations  of  slavery  by  re- 
ligious conventions  in  the  North.  During  the  first 
half  of  the  last  century  many  Influential  citizens 
of  the  South  openly  declared  the  system  of  slavery 
to  be  *'  unjust,"  "  unchristian,"  "  cruel,"  "  dis- 
graceful," "  diabolical,"  "  a  black  stain,"  "  a  ter- 
rible calamity,"  "  a  moral  and  political  evil,"  "  an 
evil  greater  to  the  master  than  to  the  slave." 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        165 

This  was  especially  true  of  prominent  leaders  in 
Virginia.  In  the  year  1845  the  Baptist  General 
Convention  for  Foreign  Missions,  having  been 
one  body  for  thirty-one  years,  was  torn  asunder, 
making  two  bodies,  a  Northern  and  a  Southern, 
because  the  Appointing  Board  resident  in  the 
North,  refused  in  response  to  an  inquiry  from  the 
Alabama  Baptist  Convention,  to  appoint  slave- 
owners as  missionaries,  "  lest  it  become  respon- 
sible for  an  institution  which  it  could  not  with  good 
conscience  sanction."  The  Civil  War  brought  de- 
struction to  the  system,  triumph  in  a  way  little 
expected  to  the  vigorous  moral  sense  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  immortal  glory  to  the  name  of  Abraham 
Lincoln;  and  in  due  time  came  healing  and  a  more 
permanent  union  to  the  dismembered  denomina- 
tions of  Christians.  Now  no  sane  man  is  so  insen- 
sible to  the  demands  of  justice  and  the  inalienable 
rights  of  humanity  as  to  defend  the  ancient  wrong. 
The  practice  of  gambling  by  lottery  which  pre- 
vailed so  extensively  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  was 
resorted  to  without  a  blush,  by  the  authorization 
of  legislative  enactment,  in  works  of  public  im- 
provement, in  securing  funds  for  the  erection  of 
public  buildings  and  even  Christian  sanctuaries, 
is  forever  ostracized  by  reason  of  the  pronounced 
condemnation  of  educated  Christian  sentiment.  In 
some  forms  gambling  still  survives,   and  though 


i66     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

sometimes  protected  by  official  corruption,  it  is 
under  the  ban  of  statutory  condemnation  like  other 
crimes  and  vices,  and  lives  in  the  dark,  shrinking 
from  discovery  and  criminal  prosecution. 

The  following  statute  was  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  of  New  York,  April  13,  18  14: 

"  An  Act  instituting  a  lottery  for  the  promotion  of  literature 
and  for  other  purposes. 

Whereas  well-regulated  seminaries  of  learning  are  of  im- 
mense importance  to  every  country  and  tend  especially,  by  the 
diffusion  of  science  and  the  promotion  of  morals,  to  defend  and 
perpetuate  the  liberties  of  a  free  state. 

Therefore 

I.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  that  there  shall  be  raised 
by  lottery,  in  successive  classes,  a  sum  equal  in  amount  to  the 
several  appropriations  made  by  this  act. 

$100,000.00  for  the  benefit  of  Union  College. 

$  40,000.00  for  the  benefit  of  Hamilton  College. 

$  40,000.00  for  the  benefit  of  Asbury  African  Church 
in  the  City  of  New  York  to  pay  a  mort- 
gage and  establish  a  school. 

$  30,000.00  for  the  benefit  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  and  certain  provisions  for 
the  benefit  of  Columbia  College. 

See  Elihu  Root's  Yale  Lectures  on  "The  Citizen's  Part  in 
Government,"  pp.  105,  106. 

The  intemperance  that  was  so  rife  even  in 
Christian  circles  in  former  days,  so  that  no  build- 
ing could  be  framed,  not  even  a  college  or  a 
church,  and  no  day's  work  could  be  done  in  field 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        167 

or  shop,  without  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquor,  and 
hospitality  even  to  a  clerg)'nian  was  not  complete 
unless  it  was  furnished,  is  now  a  mark  of  moral 
degeneracy,  and  more  and  more  by  constantly  in- 
creasing public  sentiment  restrictive  laws  are  being 
placed  upon  our  statute  books  in  reference  to  its 
manufacture  and  sale.  Rev.  William  Goodell, 
D.D.,  an  honored  missionary  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  to 
Constantinople,  describes  in  his  "  Memoirs  "  the 
social  conditions  which  prevailed  in  his  boyhood  in 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 
An  eminent  clergyman  consulted  a  physician  in 
great  perplexity  of  mind.  In  his  pastoral  work 
as  he  visited  the  sick  and  the  dying,  comforted 
'mourners,  prayed  with  the  aged  and  guided  in- 
quirers, wherever  he  called  on  these  sacred  er- 
rands liquor  was  offered  to  him,  which  in  order 
not  to  give  offense  he  felt  bound  to  take.  After 
a  few  calls  "  his  head  was  invariably  affected,  so 
that  he  found  himself  in  danger  of  saying  or  do- 
ing some  foolish  thing.  Could  the  doctor  pre- 
scribe something  for  him  to  take  in  siich  frequent 
emergencies?"  The  doctor's  only  prescription 
was,  when  his  head  was  thus  affected,  the  clergy- 
man should  go  home  while  he  was  still  able  to 
walk,  and  remain  until  the  dizziness  had  passed 
away.      "  The  idea  of  total  abstinence  seems  not 


i68     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

to  have  entered  the  mind  of  either  of  them. 
That  he  must  drink  was  taken  for  granted,  or  give 
unpardonable  offense.  In  those  days  everybody 
drank,  old  and  young,  rich  and  poor,  male  and 
female."  Dr.  Goodell  relates  another  incident, 
in  which  he  himself,  then  a  boy,  had  a  prominent 
part.  A  godly  man,  who  like  his  own  godly  par- 
ents believed  in  the  Assembly's  Catechism,  together 
with  "  the  reasons  annexed  to  the  whole  Ten  Com- 
mandments "  was  wont  to  call  at  his  home  "  to 
confer  with  his  parents  about  the  prophecies  in 
general  and  the  millennium  in  particular,"  and  the 
great  missionary  enterprise  which  was  then  be- 
ginning to  engage  the  thoughts  of  Christians.  No 
conference  ever  closed  without  glasses  of  toddy 
or  mugs  of  flip,  varying  according  to  the  season, 
"  the  sugar  at  the  bottom  being  always  reserved 
for  the  longing  palates  of  the  children."  On  one 
occasion  when  the  godly  man  called,  the  parents 
were  absent,  and  Dr.  Goodell  says,  "  I  felt  it  be- 
came me  as  the  oldest  son  of  the  family  to  treat 
the  servant  of  the  Lord  with  all  due  respect."  He 
therefore  undertook  to  make  for  this  good  man 
the  customary  glass  of  toddy.  "  On  tasting  it  I 
thought  it  too  strong  and  put  in  more  water  with 
sugar  to  match.  Tasting  it  again  I  thought  it  was 
too  weak  and  too  sweet,  and  therefore  made  an- 
other change  and  still  another."     And  so  he  con- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        169 

tinued  tasting  and  changing,  and  changing  and 
tasting  until  he  had  prepared  a  large  bowl  full, 
and  had  lost  all  idea  of  how  it  ought  to  taste. 
The  good  man  drank  a  part,  and  gave  the  children 
his  blessing,  advising  them  to  put  the  remainder 
of  the  liquor  aside  until  their  parents  returned. 
They  were  ashamed  to  have  their  parents  come 
home  and  see  what  remained,  and  to  throw  any 
of  "  the  good  creature  "  away  would  be  quite 
wicked,  and  so  they  undertook  to  reduce  the  quan- 
tity remaining,  and  drank  until,  as  the  doctor 
says  euphemistically,  "  their  heads  turned  around." 
He  adds  "  I  presume  that  the  children  of  to-day 
would  know  a  more  excellent  way  of  honoring  the 
servants  of  the  Most  High  God;  but  those  were 
days  of  darkness."  There  are  far  too  many  peo- 
ple in  nominally  Christian  communities  who  still 
love  darkness  rather  than  light.  But  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  such  scenes  could  be  repeated  in 
Christian  homes  to-day.  Several  States  and  large 
sections  of  many  others  have  passed  prohibitory 
and  no-license  laws,  which  are  executed  as  suc- 
cessfully as  any  laws  against  vice  and  crime. 
Many  citizens  are  urging  such  laws,  as  a  distin- 
guished educator  in  the  South  said,  on  the  simple 
ground  of  self-protection,  for  the  protection  of 
life  and  property  against  those  made  insane  by 
drink.     It  is  stated  that  fifteen  millions  of  our 


170     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

people  are  livang  in  nine  states  under  Statewide 
prohibition,  or  about  one-sixth  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation. In  twenty-five  states  more  than  fifty  per 
cent,  of  the  territory  is  dry,  and  in  thirteen  states 
more  than  seventy-five  per  cent,  is  dry.  An  im- 
mense amount  of  literature  portraying  the  fearful 
evils  of  alcoholism  from  a  physical  and  economical 
as  well  as  moral  standpoint,  has  been  published 
and  widely  circulated.  Temperance  societies  and 
anti-saloon  leagues  are  vigorously  and  patiently 
at  work,  hoping  In  due  time  by  means  of  an  awak- 
ened moral  sentiment  to  have  a  controlling  voice 
in  the  national  politics. 

A  mighty  work  of  reformation  still  remains  for 
the  church  of  Christ  to  do  for  the  salvation  of  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  men  from  the  destroying  In- 
fluence of  Intoxicating  drink,  and  the  removal  of 
this  formidable  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  terrible  judgment  needs 
to  be  loudly  and  constantly  proclaimed  from  every 
pulpit  in  the  land  — "  No  drunkard  shall  enter  Into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  whatever  his  position  in 
the  social  scale;  and  the  lofty  principle  of  Chris- 
tian self-denial  and  true  brotherhood  needs  to  be 
urged  again  and  again — "If  meat  make  my 
brother  to  stumble,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  forevermore, 
that  I  make  not  my  brother  to  stumble."  The 
progress  of  the  past  in  sentiment  and  determina- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        171 

tion  to  abolish  this  great  evil  prognosticates  the 
final  victory.  It  needs  to  be  added  that  unless 
labor-unions  incorporate  a  temperance  plank  into 
their  platforms  and  conscientiously  live  up  to  it, 
and  unless  reformers  and  socialists  of  every  name, 
Christian  and  anti-Christian,  grapple  and  strangle 
the  drink-habit  which  is  the  prolific  source  of 
waste,  poverty,  misery,  degradation,  vice  and 
crime,  they  are  only  playing  with  reform  and  so- 
cial betterment.  The  following  confession  of  the 
result  of  personal  observation  is  from  the  pen  of 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  that  eminent  student  of  eco- 
nomics: "  I  have  looked  into  a  thousand  homes 
of  the  working  people  of  Europe;  I  do  not  know 
how  many  in  my  own  country.  In  every  case,  so 
far  as  my  observation  goes,  drunkenness  was  at 
the  bottom  of  the  misery,  and  not  the  industrial 
system  or  the  industrial  surroundings  of  the  men 
and  their  families."  Phillips  Brooks  once  re- 
marked that  if  intemperance  could  be  wiped  out, 
there  would  not  be  poverty  and  misery  enough 
left  to  keep  our  Christian  charity  in  healthy  ex- 
ercise. The  temperance  movement,  which  was 
born  of  the  activity  of  Christian  men  and  women, 
is  still  largely  in  their  hands.  The  church  of 
Christ  is  not  yet  completely  aroused,  to  its  shame 
be  it  said;  but  when  the  church  in  which  resides 
the  omnipotence  of  God  and  through  which  He 


172     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

works,  shall  present  a  united  and  aggressive  front 
to  the  opposing  forces  of  evil,  viz.,  social  customs 
in  high  life,  heartless  greed,  enslaving  appetite 
and  a  subsidized  secular  press,  they  will  go  down 
before  it. 

Moreover,  whatever  moral  instinct  has  existed 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  whatever  inborn  sense 
of  right  and  justice,  the  church  of  Christ  has 
quickened,  interpreted,  enlightened,  enforced  and 
energized  it,  so  that  the  church  by  its  ministra- 
tions, and  by  the  consistent  lives,  examples  and  ef- 
forts of  its  members  has  been  the  chief  promoter 
of  public  moral  sentiment  and  civic  righteousness. 
One  has  only  to  imagine  the  condition  of  a  com- 
munity, a  city  or  a  nation,  in  which  the  moral  in- 
fluence of  the  church  has  never  been  felt  or  should 
be  blotted  out,  to  form  an  idea  of  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  general  public  to  its  preservative  and 
beneficent  power.  Men  who  ignore  or  repudiate 
the  authority  and  teachings  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  are  enjoying  in  their  homes,  in  their  social 
and  business  life  and  in  the  undisturbed  privileges 
of  citizenship  the  incalculable  benefits  of  its  ac- 
tive presence.  The  moral  influence  of  the  Gospel 
permeates  all  walks  and  conditions  of  life.  Christ 
still  comes  to  his  own,  though  his  own  receive  him 
not.  What  Harold  Begbie  says  of  his  nation  is 
equally  true  of  America.     "  Materialism  in  Eng- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       173 

land  is  saturated  through  and  through  with  the 
ethical  ideals  of  Jesus;  our  intellectual  agnosticism 
is  moral  with  the  inexpugnable  leaven  of  Christian- 
ity." It  can  be  said  with  absolute  confidence  that 
the  world  is  a  better  world  to  live  in  than  the 
world  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  that  it  is  a 
better  church  which  lives  in  it,  with  a  vastly  better 
equipment,  and  a  more  aggressive  spirit,  and 
higher  ideals  of  its  life  and  mission. 

A  recent  issue  of  "  The  Christian  Work  and 
Evangelist  "  contained  the  following  positive  ex- 
pression of  its  belief.  "  We  believe  that  never 
in  any  period  of  the  world's  history  was  the  church 
making  more  earnest  effort  than  it  is  to-day  to 
reach  the  people  and  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of 
God.  In  half  a  million  churches  next  Sunday 
Christ  will  be  truly  preached.  There  never  was 
so  devoted  and  passionate  humanitarianism  mani- 
fested as  the  church  to-day  is  exercising.  Never 
has  the  church  shown  such  enthusiasm  for  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world." 

Professor  George  W.  Knox  of  the  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  says,  in  "  The  Gospel  of  Jesus," 
"  Never  before  was  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  in  its 
sincerity  so  widely  recognized  and  followed;  never 
before  was  there  such  enthusiasm  in  the  service 
of  humanity;  never  before  did  so  many  powers 


174     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

combine   for   the   doing  of   the   Father's   will   on 
earth." 

These  testimonies  are  samples  of  innumerable 
expressions  of  belief  that  might  be  adduced. 
They  voice  the  very  general  conviction  of  think- 
ing men,  based  upon  a  candid  and  comprehensive 
survey  of  the  religious  conditions  of  the  world  and 
the  progress  and  present  activity  of  organized 
Christianity.  A  narrow  view,  limited  to  certain 
local  and  variable  aspects,  may  sometimes  be  dis- 
heartening; but  a  broad  outlook  upon  society  and 
the  world  will  confirm  and  strengthen  the  faith 
and  courage  born  of  the  positive,  unmistakable 
and  repeated  promises  of  the  Almighty  in  refer- 
ence to  the  triumph  of  his  Kingdom. 

There  are  a  few  people,  among  whom  is  a  small 
body  of  Christian  interpreters,  who  believe  that 
the  world  is  constantly  growing  worse,  and  that 
even  the  church  of  Christ  is  becoming  more  cor- 
rupt and  increasingly  false  to  the  teachings  of  its 
divine  Master.  Sometimes  these  interpreters 
seem  almost  jubilant  in  their  pessimistic  belief, 
for  according  to  their  interpretation  of  Scripture 
prophecy,  these  conditions  foretoken  the  speedy 
personal  coming  of  Jesus  Christ  in  judgment.  It 
is  declared  that  "  the  church  is  in  a  pitiable  condi- 
tion," "  It  is  daily  growing  weaker,"  "  it  Is  In  fact 
dying,  and  its  occasional  spasms  of  righteousness 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       175 

are  only  the  galvanic  twitching  of  its  stiffening 
members."  The  inevitable  effect  of  such  a  belief 
is  to  paralyze  all  Christian  effort,  to  silence  the 
voice  of  prayer,  to  destroy  faith  in  the  saving 
power  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  and  in  the  pur- 
pose of  Christ  to  endow  his  church  with  such 
strength  that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it,  and  to  extinguish  all  hope  in  the  full, 
glad  coming  of  his  kingdom  and  its  triumph  over 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world.  Such  a  belief, 
as  if  it  was  an  integral  part  of  the  programme  of 
Christ,  is  gloomy  beyond  expression.  To  rejoice 
in  it  would  be  unnatural  and  inhuman. 

Few  men  can  be  found  who  will  endorse  the 
astonishing  assertions  of  Alfred  Russel  Wallace, 
contained  In  his  recent  volume  entitled  "  Social  En- 
vironment and  Moral  Progress."  He  says,  "  I 
have  come  to  the  general  conclusion  that  there  has 
been  no  advance  either  in  intellect  or  morals  from 
the  days  of  the  earliest  Egyptians  to  the  keel-lay- 
ing of  the  latest  Dreadnaught."  Again  he  says, 
"  It  Is  not  too  much  to  say  that  our  whole  system 
of  society  Is  rotten  from  top  to  bottom,  and  the 
social  environment  as  a  whole,  in  relation  to  our 
possibilities  and  our  claims,  is  the  worst  the  world 
has  ever  seen."  Such  utterances  are  the  blindest 
and  wildest  utterances  of  a  pessimistic  socialism, 
which  sees  no  progress  in  the  human  race,  and  has 


176     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

no  faith  in  the  forces  that  have  been  working  for 
its  advance,  and  have  produced  a  Christian  civiH- 
zation.  And  what  is  worse,  Mr.  Wallace  has 
only  one  remedy  for  the  conditions  which  he  thinks 
he  sees,  and  that  is  a  remedy  out  of  which  God 
and  religion  have  been  eliminated. 

When  men  thoughtlessly,  or  in  a  hostile  spirit, 
or  in  mistaken  sincerity  dwell  upon  the  imagined  in- 
effectiveness of  Christian  churches,  they  are  blind 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  universally  the  homes  of 
individual  and  social  purity,  that  they  are  the  ex- 
ponents of  righteousness  in  doctrine  and  in  life, 
that  they  hold  up  persistently  the  highest  ethical 
standards,  that  they  are  as  a  solid  sea-wall  to 
protect  communities  against  the  encroachments  of 
vice  and  crime  of  every  description,  and  that  in 
them  is  deposited  the  hope  of  the  world's  redemp- 
tion. Judge  Lewis  L.  Fawcett  of  Brooklyn  has 
made  this  significant  revelation  of  personal  ex- 
perience. "  Approximately  2700  cases  have  been 
brought  before  me  in  my  five  and  a  half  years  of 
service  on  the  bench.  During  all  this  time  I  have 
never  had  to  try  a  man  who  was  at  the  time  of 
the  alleged  offense,  or  ever  had  been,  an  active 
member  of  the  church."  Similar  testimony  has 
been  given  by  a  judge  in  Chicago,  before  whom 
have  come  many  divorce  suits.  He  said, 
"  Rarely,  almost  never,  were  the  parties  to  a  di- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        177 

vorce  suit  active  church  workers."  The  question 
arises  whether  the  apparently  careful  emphasis 
laid  in  both  instances  upon  the  activity  of  the 
parties,  and  by  implication  upon  the  lack  of  it,  is 
not  suggestive.  An  idle  profession  may  be  no 
certain  protection  against  wrong-doing.  Judge 
Fawcett  added, — "  I  have  asked  each  young  crim- 
inal who  came  before  me,  if  he  was  a  member  or 
an  attendant  at  a  Sunday  School,  and  I  have  never 
been  answered  Yes.  .  .  .  When  by  means  of  sus- 
pended sentence  I  have  seen  fit  to  give  young  pris- 
oners opportunities  to  lead  better  lives,  I  have  in- 
sisted that  the  first  thing  they  must  do  is  to  join  a 
Sunday  School." 

A  leading  religious  editor  commenting  on  these 
remarkable  testimonies  to  the  restraining  influ- 
ence of  organized  Christianity,  said — "  It  really 
looks  as  though  the  Christian  church  quite  sufli- 
clently  justified  its  existence  to  the  nation  merely 
as  a  preventive  of  crime,  a  barrier  against  relapse 
into  barbarism,  a  police  agency  in  preserving 
order,  a  preservative  of  common  virtue  and  de- 
cency. We  believe  any  careful  student  of  sociol- 
ogy and  morals  will  sustain  Judge  Fawcett's  state- 
ment that  the  church  is  a  great  curb  on  crime. 
Furthermore,  we  believe  that  he  would  agree  that 
It  Is  the  wall  which  holds  the  race  from  falling 
back  into  primeval  habits  and  criminal  instincts. 


178     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

.  .  .  Most  of  our  respectable,  attractive  commu- 
nities of  high  moral  tone  are  so  because  the  church 
of  Christ  is  there.  Our  beautiful  towns  are  what 
they  are,  instead  of  hotbeds  of  vice,  drunkenness 
and  crime,  because  the  church  of  Christ  is  there. 
.  .  .  Were  not  the  town  predominantly  Christian, 
crime  would  make  it  Impossible  as  a  home.  There- 
fore every  man  In  the  community  owes  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  church.  He  profits  from  it, 
whether  he  serves  It  or  not.  It  Is  better  burglar 
Insurance  than  Insurance  companies.  It  makes  the 
streets  safer  for  his  daughters.  The  stronger  the 
church  Is,  the  cleaner,  healthier,  safer,  happier, 
more  respectable  the  town.  If  every  man  were  in 
the  church,  it  would  save  most  of  the  expense  for 
police,  judges,  lawyers  and  courts.  Judge  Faw- 
cett  tells  us  that  crime  now  costs  us  $700,000,000 
a  year.  It  would  cost  us  hardly  any  of  that.  If  all 
were  In  the  churches.  Really  the  man  who  Is 
living  In  our  crime-free,  respectable  towns,  and 
does  nothing  for  the  church,  Is  living  on  charity. 
He  is  profiting  from  the  church's  curb  on  crime, 
but  is  giving  nothing  In  return."  The  Christian 
church  Is  the  greatest  moral  as  well  as  spiritual 
force  In  the  community.  The  first  question  of  an 
educated  man  who  owes  his  education  in  no  small 
part  to  the  generous  gifts  of  the  Christian  public, 
should  be,  not  what  can  I  get  out  of  the  church, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       179 

but  how  can  I  help  it,  and  increase  its  power  for 
good.  Otherwise  unless  the  selfishness  of  his  heart 
has  been  brought  under  the  control  of  the  higher 
motive,  his  education  has  failed  in  its  noble  pur- 
pose. 

A  clergyman  in  a  Western  city,  desiring  to  know 
the  views  of  intelligent  laymen  upon  religious 
faiths  and  problems,  propounded  a  list  of  ques- 
tions to  120  of  "the  most  prominent  business 
men  "  of  his  city,  and  published  a  summary  of  their 
answers.  One  of  the  questions  pertained  to  the 
church  and  its  influence  in  the  world.  The  follow- 
ing is  his  report  of  the  answers  returned.  "  Not 
one  unkind  criticism  or  weak  indorsement  of  the 
church  was  received.  Appreciation  of  the  church 
was  comprehensively  and  startlingly  expressed. 
Witness  the  following:  The  church  stands  first 
in  the  world's  institutions  for  the  good  of  mankind 
in  every  relationship  of  life;  the  church  is  the  foun- 
dation of  civilization,  and  is  doing  great  good;  the 
world  would  be  lost  without  churches;  without  the 
moral  teachings  of  the  church  the  world's  degen- 
eration would  inevitably  follow;  it  is  the  keystone 
of  social  order,  society  would  be  chaos  without  it; 
it  uplifts  the  world  and  does  away  with  vice;  it 
teaches  that,  regardless  of  future  reward,  morality 
pays,  not  in  money  or  glory,  but  in  all  that  makes 
a  man  satisfied  with  himself;  it  creates  and  keeps 


r8o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

alive  high  ideals;  the  example  of  its  members  in 
living  right  is  of  great  value;  it  emphasizes  the 
spiritual  against  the  material;  it  elevates,  softens, 
soothes  and  comforts  humanity;  it  keeps  us  close 
to  God."  These  are  the  candid  judgments  of 
men  of  business,  who  live  in  the  midst  of  life  and 
its  practical  affairs,  and  are  able  to  estimate  the 
influence  of  the  churches  upon  personal  character 
and  social  conditions.  Such  testimonies  can  be 
duplicated  in  every  city  in  the  land,  and  the  fact 
has  convincing  weight  with  all  unprejudiced  minds. 
It  is  well  to  remember  the  often  quoted  rebuke 
said  to  have  been  uttered  by  James  Russell  Low- 
ell, when  minister  to  the  Court  of  Saint  James, 
in  the  presence  of  a  group  of  literary  men,  some  of 
whom  were  boasting  that  they  and  the  rest  of  the 
world  could  get  on  safely  without  the  religion  of 
Christ.  "  When  the  keen  scrutiny  of  skeptics  has 
found  a  place  on  this  planet  where  a  decent  man 
may  live  in  decency,  comfort  and  security,  support- 
ing and  educating  his  children  unspoiled  and  un- 
polluted, a  place  where  age  is  reverenced,  infancy 
protected,  womanhood  honored,  and  human  life 
held  in  high  regard, —  when  skeptics  can  find  such 
a  place  ten  miles  square  on  this  globe,  where  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  has  not  gone  before,  and  cleared 
the  way,  and  laid  the  foundations  that  made  de- 
cency and  security  possible,  it  will  then  be  in  order 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        i8i 

for  these  skeptical  literati  to  move  thither,  an(3 
there  ventilate  their  views.  But  so  long  as  these 
men  are  dependent  on  the  very  religion  which  they 
discard  for  every  privilege  they  enjoy,  they  may 
well  hesitate  to  rob  the  Christian  of  his  hope  and 
humanity  of  its  faith  in  the  Saviour,  who  alone 
has  given  to  men  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  which 
makes  life  tolerable  and  society  possible,  and  robs 
death  of  its  terrors  and  the  grave  of  its  gloom." 
It  is  said  that  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  was  once 
appealing  to  a  man  of  wealth  for  a  contribution 
towards  the  erection  of  a  church  in  a  new  town  in 
the  West,  and  urged  his  appeal  by  saying  that  the 
existence  of  a  Christian  church  would  minister  to 
material  values  in  a  community  as  well  as  to  pri- 
vate virtue  and  public  morality.  When  the  man 
of  wealth  questioned  the  truth  of  his  statement. 
Dr.  Bushnell  quickly  asked  him,  "  What  would 
your  real  estate  be  worth  in  Sodom?"  The 
Christian  church  is  the  conservator  of  all  values, 
material  as  well  as  moral  and  spiritual.  A  vital 
godliness  has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  our  only 
safeguard  against  misrule  and  anarchy.  The  ex- 
istence of  vice  and  crime,  of  political  corruption 
and  vicious  legislation,  of  fraud  and  graft,  of  op- 
pression and  wrong,  continues  to  curse  the  body 
politic,  only  because  the  Prince  of  Peace  and 
Righteousness  has  not  yet  been  allowed  to  have 


i82     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

full  sway  among  the  people.  The  disciples  of 
Christ  have  made  their  influence  felt  mightily,  and 
by  no  means  in  vain,  but  the  full  victory  is  yet  in 
the  future.  The  progress  of  moral  sentiment  in  a 
community  is  not  to  be  judged  always  by  the  con- 
tinued existence  of  certain  evils.  The  truer 
criterion  is,  what  is  the  attitude  of  the  public  con- 
science towards  them?  Are  these  evils  unrecog- 
nized and  condoned,  or  are  they  recognized  and 
condemned?  The  gross  exhibitions  of  moral  de- 
pravity, in  high  places  and  low,  which  now  and 
then  startle  the  community,  serve  to  reveal  the 
vigorous  moral  sentiment  of  the  people,  which  in- 
variably expresses  itself  in  swift,  positive  and  un- 
mistakable condemnation. 

It  should  be  added  as  one  of  the  moral  achieve- 
ments of  the  last  century,  that  the  Hague  Court, 
established  for  the  peaceable  settlement  of  inter- 
national disputes  which  until  very  recent  years 
were  wont  to  be  submitted  to  the  arbitrament  of 
cruel  and  barbaric  war,  which  settles  nothing  ex- 
cept the  superiority  of  brute  force  or  power  of  en- 
durance on  one  side  or  the  other,  is  a  conspicuous 
illustration  of  the  progress  of  a  Christian  civili- 
zation and  has  been  secured  largely  through  the 
enforcement  of  Christian  principles  and  the  tri- 
umph of  Christian  sentiment.  Already  in  a  large 
number  of  instances  disputes  have  been  amicably 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        183 

adjusted  by  means  of  this  Court,  and  the  enor- 
mous waste  and  cruel  suffering  of  war  have  been 
avoided.  If  the  last  century  had  been  distin- 
guished for  nothing  else,  this  new  tribunal  and  its 
remarkable  success  would  have  made  it  illustrious. 
It  has  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  divine  programme 
of  the  coming  of  the  kingdom.  It  has  brought 
perceptibly  nearer  the  prophetic  time,  when  under 
the  reign  of  the  great  Prince  of  Peace  "  nation 
shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall 
they  learn  war  any  more." 

In  general  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  church 
of  Christ  to-day  occupies  a  higher  ethical  ground 
than  ever  before,  and  that  the  last  century  has 
lifted  the  ideals  of  Jesus  for  individual  and  per- 
sonal life,  for  society  and  for  human  government 
to  a  more  conspicuous  and  luminous  place  in  the 
judgment  of  thoughtful  men  than  in  the  past, 
as  the  supreme  standard  of  conduct  and  life  for 
man  in  his  every  relation,  and  as  the  divine  law 
which  is  to  govern  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
and  in  Heaven. 

Luther's  interpretation  of  the  practical  nature 
of  the  Christian  religion,  viz.,  "  Good  works  fol- 
low redemption  as  the  fruit  grows  on  the  tree," 
has  certainly  been  the  prevailing  belief  of  Protes- 
tant Christianity.  The  great  preachers  and  the 
great  revivalists  of  the  last  century  have  empha- 


1 84     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

sized  honesty  and  integrity  of  character  as  a  neces- 
sary sequence  of  personal  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  their  preaching  has  often  been  followed  by 
marvelous  exhibitions  of  voluntary  restitution  and 
reparation  of  wrong  on  the  part  of  converts. 
Men  who  have  been  brought  into  right  relations 
with  God  have  hastened  to  come  into  right  re- 
lations with  their  fellow  men.  The  epistles  of 
Paul  and  the  epistle  of  James  have  been  accepted 
as  of  equal  authority  and  as  integral  parts  of  the 
one  divine  Gospel  proclaimed  by  Christ,  whose 
legitimate,  whose  expected,  whose  genuine  fruits 
would  be  regenerated  men, 

"  Whose  faith  and  works  are  bells  in  full  accord." 

Our  ablest  theologians  have  believed  that  to 
draw  a  distinction  between  the  writings  of  Paul 
and  Christ  or  of  Paul  and  James  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  Paul,  as  if  his  writings  were  lacking  in 
ethical  force,  is  to  misunderstand  utterly  the  great 
apostle.  Dr.  Galusha  Anderson  has  well  said  — 
"  One  has  but  to  run  his  eye  over  Paul's  epistles 
to  be  convinced  of  the  utter  incorrectness  of  this 
charge.  Very  much  that  he  wrote  was  for  the 
very  purpose  of  correcting  unchristian  conduct. 
The  twelfth,  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  chapters 
of  Romans  are  wholly  ethical.  First  Corinthians 
deals  almost  entirely  with  Christian  morals.     The 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       185 

eighth  and  ninth  chapters  of  Second  Corinthians 
are  devoted  to  the  duty  of  giving.  In  Ephesians 
whole  chapters  are  solidly  ethical.  A  large  space 
in  Colossians  is  also.  And  so  it  is,  in  different 
degrees,  in  all  Paul's  letters.  Moreover,  moral 
precepts  are  scattered  through  all  his  doctrinal 
discussions.  Paul  was  always  earnestly  and  in- 
tensely practical.  His  aim  in  every  argument  was 
to  secure  right  thinking  and  consequently  right 
conduct.  His  doctrines  flowered  and  fruited  into 
duty." 

President  E.  Y.  MuUins  says,  "  If  the  reader 
will  turn  to  the  twelfth,  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
chapters  of  Romans  and  compare  these  with  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  he  will  be  struck  with  the 
resemblances."  Dr.  Sanday  expresses  the  same 
view  in  these  words,  "  To  these  verbal  resem- 
blances must  be  added  remarkable  identity  of 
teaching  in  these  successive  chapters."  And 
Knowling,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  Sanday,  adds,  "  In- 
deed it  is  not  too  much  to  add  that  the  Apostle's 
description  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  reads  like  a 
brief  summary  of  its  description  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount." 

If  additional  testimony  Is  needed  to  the  preva- 
lent belief  that  the  ethical  teachings  of  Paul  are  in 
full  harmony  with  those  of  Christ,  the  following 
striking  quotation  is  taken  from  the  able  volume 


1 86     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

of  R.  W.  Livingstone  on  "  The  Greek  Genius  and 
its  Meaning  to  Us."  "  Turn  to  the  close  of  one 
of  his  epistles,  where  with  warning  and  encourage- 
ment, with  argument  and  exhortation,  the  apos- 
tle is  urging  on  some  infant  community  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Christian  virtues.  One  on  the  heels  of 
another,  his  precepts  come  tumbling  out,  breaking 
impetuously  into  questions,  reinforced  by  quota- 
tions, by  adjurations,  by  appeals  to  his  personal 
appearance  by  prayers,  by  tears.  It  is  difficult  to 
select  single  instances  from  Saint  Paul,  for  the 
whole  of  his  epistles  are  instinct  with  a  feeling 
which,  except  perhaps  for  certain  passages  in  Plato 
and  Euripides,  is  absent  from  Greek  literature,  a 
passionate  hunger  for  righteousness,  a  passionate 
indignation  against  those  who  frustrate  it.  He 
overflows  in  enthusiastic  denunciations.  Of  sex- 
ual vice  he  writes  let  it  not  be  once  named  among 
you.  Of  avarice  he  says  that  the  covetous  man 
has  no  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  .  .  . 
Everywhere  he  is  insistent  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  without  regard  of  consequences,  to  con- 
demn evil.  For  him  Christ  can  have  no  concord 
with  Belial." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  failures  of  the 
Christian  church  in  the  nineteenth  century,  for  fail- 
ures as  well  as  successes  have  marked  the  progress 
of  the  years,  they  have  not  been  the  result  of 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       187 

a  misunderstanding  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles,  or  of  a  lack  of  faith  in  their  applica- 
bility to  all  the  conditions  of  human  life,  or  in  the 
divine  sufficiency  of  their  remedial  power,  a  faith 
which  Christian  experience  has  served  only  to 
strengthen  and  confirm, 

"  New  occasions  teach  new  duties."  Social 
conditions  have  arisen,  of  which  the  fathers  never 
dreamed, —  strife  between  capital  and  labor  with 
fault  on  both  sides,  in  many  instances  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  poor  and  powerless,  the  hardships  of 
toiling  women  and  children,  the  unsanitary  condi- 
tion of  the  modern  slum,  the  glaring  inequalities 
which  exist  in  society,  the  colossal  corruption  in 
high  places,  and  the  prevalence  of  nameless  and 
shameless  vices.  These  conditions  present  new 
and  serious  problems  in  new  lights.  They  widen 
the  application  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  fur- 
nish new  fields  for  the  enforcement  of  its  right- 
eous and  humane  principles.  But  the  Gospel  is 
the  one  divine  and  all  sufficient  remedy.  To 
abandon  the  remedy  prescribed  by  infinite  Wis- 
dom, and  think  to  change  evil  conditions  by  simply 
changing  environment,  or  by  an  analytical  study 
of  the  disease,  or  by  enacting  legislation  without 
changing  the  moral  character  of  men  and  women, 
would  be  to  rub  the  empty  bottle  on  the  diseased 
part,  and  expect  by  so  doing  to  effect  a  cure.     So- 


1 88     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

ciology  is  the  one  study  that  can  least  get  on  with- 
out a  vital  Christianity.  A  thoughtful  writer  has 
said,  "  Law  is  great,  but  religion  is  greater,  and 
we  shall  have  gained  very  little,  if  as  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  told  the  Congress  of  the  Sanitary 
Institute  in  his  cathedral  city,  we  produce  a  race 
'  physically  fit,  but  spiritually,  mentally  and  mor- 
ally sterile.'  It  is  i,n  that  direction  that  the  danger 
lies,  and  it  is  a  danger  to  which  we  have  as  yet 
given  far  too  little  consideration.  There  is  abun- 
dant room  for  that  regeneration  which  is  the  only 
effective  and  lasting  antidote  to  degeneration." 

Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  speaking  of  "  the  new  so- 
cial ideal  "  which  is  being  advocated  in  certain 
quarters  to-day,  pronounces  it  "  little  more  than  a 
millennium  of  creature  comfort.  It  needs  to  be 
elevated,  illuminated  and  glorified  by  Christ's  so- 
cial ideal.  It  is  quite  possible  for  society  to  be  at 
the  same  time  well  housed,  well  fed,  well  clothed, 
well  educated,  and  well  rotted.  The  world  can 
never  be  saved  from  misery  until  it  is  saved  from 
sin,  and  never  ought  to  be.  The  ideal  of  Chris- 
tianity is  that  of  a  society  in  which  God's  will  is 
done  as  perfectly  as  it  is  in  heaven;  one  in  which 
absolute  obedience  is  rendered  to  every  law  of  our 
being,  physical,  mental,  spiritual,  social;  and  this 
is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  kingdom  of  God 
fully  come  in  the  earth." 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        189 

President  Augustus  H.  Strong  says  in  "  Chapel 
Talks,"  "  Christianity  aims  at  both  reform  and 
regeneration,  but  it  puts  cause  before  effect,  re- 
generation before  reform."  "  Make  the  tree 
good  and  its  fruit  good,"  says  Christ.  Much  of 
our  modern  socialistic  propaganda,  however,  ig- 
nores this  logical  relation,  and  thinks  to  purify  the 
stream  without  touching  the  fountain.  He  quotes 
from  Horace  Mann  who  said,  "  One  former 
is  worth  a  hundred  reformers,"  and  adds,  "  Let 
us  who  are  preachers  take  that  comfort  to  our- 
selves. We  are  set  to  purify  the  springs  of  hu- 
man action,  and  that  is  a  grander  thing  than  to 
direct  the  course  of  the  stream  after  it  has  be- 
gun to  flow.  Reform  will  come  in  due  time,  if 
regeneration  has  only  gone  before.  It  is  our  busi- 
ness to  help  on  all  true  reform;  but  as  ministers  of 
Christ,  we  can  best  do  this  by  giving  to  the  com- 
munity truly   regenerated   men." 

Prof.  W.  H.  Maynard  in  an  address  before  the 
Colgate  Theological  Seminary  on  "  The  Twen- 
tieth Century  Preacher,"  says  — "  Had  the  Master 
with  his  twelve  legions  of  angels,  deposed  the 
Emperor  Tiberius,  retired  to  private  life  every 
corrupt  official,  enacted  a  perfect  code  of  laws, 
and  appointed  model  officers  for  their  enforce- 
ment, and  thereupon  reascended  to  Heaven, 
doubtless  the  old  corruptions  would  have  soon  re- 


I90     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

turned.  It  is  a  fact  too  generally  overlooked, 
that  under  any  system  righteousness  will  reign 
only  in  proportion  as  men  become  righteous." 

The  following  extracts  from  "  A  Warning  "  by 
Professor  Shailer  Mathews  have  no  uncertain 
sound.  "  A  danger  to  which  Protestantism,  par- 
ticularly progressive  Protestantism,  in  America  is 
exposed  is  that  its  churches  shall  become  mere 
agents  of  social  service.  .  .  .  But  we  cannot  let 
social  service  take  the  place  of  God.  ...  A 
Protestant  church  cannot  be  an  ethical  orphan 
asylum;  it  must  be  a  home  in  which  souls  are  born 
into  newness  of  life.  We  want  efficiency  in  or- 
ganization and  in  activity.  We  want  our  minis- 
ters to  be  alive  to  the  needs  of  the  hour,  etc.  .  .  . 
But  most  of  all  does  American  Protestantism  need 
a  spiritual  passion,  a  contagious  faith  in  the  su- 
premacy of  God's  spiritual  order  and  an  alarm 
at  the  misery  that  waits  on  sin.  From  many  a 
community  there  is  already  rising  a  cry  for  ele- 
mental religion.  With  all  their  scientific  and 
business  success,  American  laymen  are  asserting 
that  they  want  to  be  assured  of  God  and  immor- 
tality and  the  worth  of  righteousness.  They 
want  companionship  in  spiritual  loneliness,  com- 
fort in  hours  of  pain,  courage  in  moments  of  moral 
wavering.  Their  souls  are  athirst  for  the  Un- 
known,  and  they  will  be   satisfied  with  nothing 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        191 

save  the  water  that  comes  from  the  River  of 
God." 

And  Dr.  J.  H.  Jowett  utters  a  like  warning 
when  he  says,  "  Men  may  become  so  absorbed  in 
social  wrongs  as  to  miss  the  deeper  malady  of 
personal  sin.  They  may  lift  the  rod  of  oppres- 
sion and  leave  the  burden  of  guilt.  They  may 
seek  to  correct  dislocations  and  overlook  the  awful 
disorder  of  the  soul." 

The  primary  duty  of  the  Christian  church  and 
pulpit  is  supremely  personal.  It  is  not,  as  has 
been  said,  to  create  an  atmosphere  merely  favor- 
able to  the  solution  of  social  problems,  nor  simply 
to  proclaim  a  divine  standard  of  life  and  conduct, 
but  it  is  to  create  Christian  men  and  women,  with 
hearts  touched  by  the  divine  life,  with  a  clearer 
vision  of  God's  truth  and  man's  duty,  with  an 
earnest,  self-denying  purpose  which  will  not  be 
satisfied  with  any  superficial  remedies  or  half-way 
measures,  but  will  seek  in  Christ's  way  to  destroy 
the  works  of  the  Devil  and  bring  in  the  kingdom 
of  God;  in  a  word,  who  will  not  only  pray  "  thy 
kingdom  come,"  but  will  intelligently,  prayer- 
fully, unitedly,  persistently  labor  to  make  it  come. 
Someone  has  said,  "  Produce  great  persons,  the 
rest  will  follow,"  whether  persons  or  the  condi- 
tions which  make  for  human  progress. 

It  has  been  wisely  remarked,  "  Not  wells  flow- 


192     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Ing  with  oil,  nor  mines  teeming  with  silver  and 
gold,  nor  plains  covered  with  flocks  and  herds  so 
enrich  a  State  as  noble  men  and  noble  women, 
equipped  by  training  and  culture  to  meet  all  the 
demands  and  high  opportunities  of  our  Christian 
civilization."  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
these  recent  years  has  been  especially  fruitful, 
not  only  in  producing  such  noble  men  and  no- 
ble women,  but  in  producing  the  Christian 
civilization  with  its  insistent  demands  and 
its  high  opportunities.  It  has  created  both  the 
demand  and  the  supply.  The  women  of  our 
churches,  as  well  as  the  men,  have  been  enlisted 
as  never  before  in  the  varied  activities  of  our 
time,  educational,  philanthropic,  reformatory  and 
missionary.  Christianity  from  the  time  of  its 
introduction  exalted  woman  to  a  place  of  equal 
honor  and  responsibility  in  the  family  life;  but 
not  until  the  last  half  century  were  there  opened 
to  her  the  splendid  opportunities  of  privilege  and 
of  service  which  she  now  enjoys  and  welcomes. 
It  is  as  if  she  had  come  to  a  new  emancipation. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  men  and  the 
women  demanded  by  the  times  can  be  created  only 
by  placing  the  emphasis  upon  the  things  of  the 
spirit,  the  being  of  God,  the  mission  of  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  the  new  life  by  the  divine 
Spirit,  communion  with  the  unseen  and  eternal, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        193 

the  far  vision  that  is  not  limited  by  the  physical, 
the  earthly,  the  temporal.  "  In  the  world,  but 
not  of  it  "  is  the  secret  of  the  highest  life  and 
blessedness  and  power.  He  who  would  lift  up 
the  world  must  have  a  life  above  it  and  a  strength 
superior  to  it.  The  world  has  become  intensely 
materialistic.  The  outward  and  visible  crowds 
out  all  thought  of  the  spiritual  and  eternal.  The 
Christian  church  is  the  divinely  appointed  agency, 
whose  chief  mission  is  to  remind  man  of  his  higher 
nature  and  minister  to  it.  Its  spiritual  aim  must 
be  paramount  and  overtop  everything  else.  Its 
spiritual  message  must  ever  be  exalted  to  the  place 
of  supreme  importance.  Man  is  more  than  flesh 
and  bones.  Life  Is  more  than  meat  and  raiment. 
To  look  no  higher  than  physical  needs  and  social 
reforms  Is  to  forget  the  divine  Image  and  the  glory 
of  true  manhood.  These  ought  you  to  have  done, 
and  not  to  leave  the  other  undone.  The  following 
article  taken  from  the  platform  of  "  The  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America," 
expresses  clearly  and  succinctly  the  lofty  ideal  and 
purpose  of  Christianity.  "  Christ's  mission  is 
not  merely  to  reform  society,  but  to  save  it.  He 
is  more  than  the  world's  Readjuster.  He  is  its 
Redeemer.  The  church  becomes  worthless  for  its 
higher  purpose  when  It  deals  with  conditions  and 
forgets  character,  relieves  misery  and  ignores  sin, 


194     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

pleads  for  justice  and  undervalues  forgiveness." 
Another  has  said,  "  The  greatest  service  the 
church  can  render  to  the  community  lies  in  the 
message  she  proclaims.  In  the  midst  of  organiza- 
tions and  administrations  she  is  sadly  impover- 
ished, and  the  community  is  destitute  indeed,  if 
she  loses  her  lofty  note  of  spiritual  insight  and 
vision.  The  temporal  passes  away.  She  is  to 
reveal  unto  men  the  eternal.  When  she  inspires 
a  man  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness, 
when  she  imparts  a  glimpse  of  the  invisible,  when 
she  draws  down  from  the  heavenly  places  a  little 
of  the  unattained,  she  is  setting  the  high  ideal  and 
lifting  humanity  heavenward  as  no  other  agency 
can  do.  To  her  it  is  given  to  preach  the  mys- 
tery of  Christ." 

Has  the  church  been  doing  this,  and  is  it  doing 
it  to-day?  Is  it  seeking  to  fulfill  its  exalted  mis- 
sion, and  with  honest  purpose  and  pure  heart 
striving  to  live  up  to  its  high  ideals?  Making 
allowance  for  human  weakness  and  possible  cases 
of  self-deception,  is  its  testimony  clear  and  strong 
to  the  spiritual  and  ethical  nature  of  its  mes- 
sage? Is  it  deserving  of  the  sharp  criticism 
which  is  sometimes  heard  in  unexpected  quar- 
ters? The  Christian  teacher  and  author,  al- 
ready quoted,  has  publicly  asserted  that  *'  The 
church  maintains  a   splendid  ideal   of  the  king- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        195 

dom,  hut  only  as  an  ideal,  something  too  spirit- 
ual to  be  expected  in  this  life,  a  hope  for  the 
world  to  come,  and  as  to  this  world  it  winks  at 
all  injustice  and  iniquity."  Again  he  asserted, 
"  To-day  the  church  pardons,  if  it  does  not  en- 
courage, ways  of  doing  business  totally  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  Gospel  and  at  variance  with  the 
fundamental  instincts  of  justice."  These  words 
of  sweeping  condemnation  from  such  a  source  are 
as  unjust  as  they  are  surprising,  and  are  exceed- 
ingly regrettable.  They  give  countenance  to  the 
bitter  and  blasphemous  assaults  of  infidelity,  and 
confirm  it  in  its  hostility  and  unbelief.  They  im- 
ply the  possession  of  a  knowledge  which  no  man 
possesses,  and  an  absence  of  a  charity  which 
every  man  ought  to  possess.  There  may  be  some 
persons  who  bear  the  name  of  Christ,  and  un- 
doubtedly are,  whose  business  methods  will  not 
bear  the  light  of  Christian  morality  or  of  com- 
mon honesty,  who  "  break  God's  laws  for  a  divi- 
dend," but  to  charge  the  whole  Christian  church 
with  being  false  to  its  profession,  and  sheltering 
injustice  and  fraud,  and  with  criminally  encour- 
aging and  conniving  at  all  iniquity,  would  be  like 
charging  the  eleven  apostles  with  wicked  com- 
plicity with  Judas  in  his  base  betrayal  of  his  Lord. 
Can  the  Christian  ministry  and  the  Christian 
church   in  all  its  branches  in  our  day  be  looked 


196     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

upon  as  a  generation  of  hypocrites,  or  as  making 
as  empty  profession  of  a  religion  of  whose  re- 
quirements they  are  grossly  ignorant  or  willfully 
neglectful?  Are  not  the  great  body  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Christ  holding  in  reverent  regard  the 
ethical  teachings  of  their  divine  Master,  both  as 
to  the  inner  spirit  and  the  outer  conduct,  and 
acknowledging  their  binding  authority,  and  are 
they  not  humbly  and  conscientiously  endeavoring 
to  incorporate  them  in  living  examples?  Is  not 
the  Christian  pulpit  universally  demanding  justice 
and  charity  among  men,  and  proclaiming  loudly 
and  insistently,  and  with  a  wider  application  than 
ever  before,  the  high  ideals  of  Jesus?  Is  not 
the  church  devoting  thought  and  strength  in- 
creasingly to  moral  reform  and  ever  inaugurating 
new  methods  of  social  betterment?  Rev.  Charles 
Stelzle  states  (and  no  man  is  better  informed), 
"  A  study  of  over  a  thousand  professional  social 
workers  as  to  church  affiliation  shows  that  of  those 
who  were  associated  charity  workers  92%  were 
church  members.  ...  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
church  practically  controls  through  its  member- 
ship nearly  every  great  philanthropic  movement 
of  any  consequence.  Glance  at  the  list  of  direc- 
tors and  verify  this  statement.  Practically  all  of 
the  money  that  goes  to  the  hospitals,  orphan 
asylums,     clubs    and    charitable    institutions    of 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       197 

various  kinds  comes  from  the  church  people. 
Without  them  these  could  not  exist."  The  church 
cannot  justly  be  charged  with  indifference  to  ex- 
isting needs  and  conditions.  If  there  is  any  fail- 
ure and  any  peril  at  the  present  time  it  is  in  spend- 
ing the  strength  upon  attempts  to  supply  the  needs, 
while  the  fountain  is  allowed  to  remain  corrupt, 
seeking  to  change  environment  and  conditions 
without  changing  disposition  and  character,  sub- 
stituting outward  comfort  and  decency  for  inward 
godliness,  in  a  word,  allowing  moral  reforms  and 
social  movements  to  assume  an  importance  above 
the  fundamental  truths  of  the  Christian  faith  and 
the  sublime  realities  of  the  Christian  experience. 
Professor  Royce  of  Cambridge  says,  in 
"  Sources  of  Religious  Insight,"  "  There  are  some 
clergymen  to  whom  the  preaching  of  religion  has 
come  to  mean  in  the  main  the  preaching  of  benef- 
icent social  reforms."  But  religion  has  to  do 
fundamentally  with  a  man's  spiritual  and  Immor- 
tal nature.  It  anticipates  the  next  world  as  well 
as  this.  Even  a  man's  life  here  cannot  be  saved 
from  weakness  and  failure,  and  be  enabled  to 
attain  unto  its  largest  meaning  and  service  by 
purely  human  and  external  means.  Workers  in 
social  settlements  are  learning  from  experience 
that  back  of  all  social  reform  that  looks  for  suc- 
cessful and  permanent  fruits,  there  must  be  the 


198     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

religious  faith  with  its  regenerating  and  trans- 
forming power.  Indeed  this  is  the  supreme  and 
inspiring  motive  and  divine  method  of  all  such 
reform  work.  Another  has  said,  "  But  giving  the 
merely  social  settlement  all  its  due,  there  are  still 
many  who  believe  that  it  comes  far  short  of  meet- 
ing the  deepest  need.  There  are  many  who  pro- 
foundly believe  that  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  directly  applied  is  the  greatest  uplifting 
force  known,  even  to  social  science,  and  that  ex- 
perimenting with  ethical  culture  and  social  re- 
forms without  direct  religious  effort  is,  to  use  the 
language  of  a  noted  missionary  worker,  trying  to 
elevate  the  masses  without  the  elevator."  All 
true  love  to  man  has  its  roots  in  love  to  God. 
The  second  commandment  of  the  law,  epitomized 
by  Christ,  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  first, 
and  grows  out  of  it.  The  order  is  significant. 
Christianity  works  from  within  outward,  and  not 
vice  versa.  The  divine  order  cannot  be  Inverted. 
The  fruit  of  the  tree  is  dependent  upon  the  life- 
giving  sap.  Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of 
life.  Right  living  is  dependent  upon  right  be- 
lieving and  right  thinking.  To  know  God  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  He  has  sent  is  life,  in  its  fullest 
and  deepest  meaning,  is  life  here  and  life  here- 
after.    A  man  must  first  learn  to  sing  out  of  an 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        199 

intelligent  appreciation  and  vital  experience,  with 
Charles  Wesley, 

"  Oh  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing 

My  dear  Redeemer's  praise, 
The  glories  of  my  God  and  King, 

The  triumphs  of  his  grace," 

before  he  can  sing  trustingly,  lovingly  and  sub- 
missively with  Washington  Gladden, 

"  Oh,   Master,   let  me  walk  with  Thee 
In  lowly  paths  of  service  free." 

There  is  no   antithesis  in  these  hymns,  but  only 
a  natural  and  logical  sequence. 

In  the  preaching  of  the  pulpit  and  in  the  work 
of  the  church,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Chris- 
tianity' deals  primarily  with  the  individual.  Its 
message  is  to  the  individual.  Its  command  is, 
"  Follow  thou  me."  It  is  to  change  social  condi- 
tions, determine  public  sentiment,  root  out  iniquity 
and  every  form  of  evil,  establish  righteousness  and 
peace  and  brotherhood  on  the  earth,  and  bring  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,  as  men  one  by  one  accept  its 
message  and  yield  obedience  to  its  commands. 
For  strong  as  is  Christ's  emphasis  upon  individual 
discipleship,  it  is  everywhere  understood  to  have 
far-reaching  relationships.  He  himself  declared, 
"  Ye,  my  disciples,  are  the  light  of  the  world. 
Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth."      Dr.  Stalker  has 


200     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

called  Christ  "  the  discov^erer  of  the  individual." 
He  was  that,  and  He  was  more  than  that.  He 
was  the  revealer  of  the  true  social  order,  and  also 
of  the  divine  method  of  its  realization,  an  order 
for  which  there  is  no  adequate  human  substitute, 
and  an  order  based  upon  the  worth  of  the  in- 
dividual soul  and  resulting  from  its  spirit-quick- 
ened life  and  its  gracious  activities.  Whenever 
the  church  of  Christ  has  become  formal  and  lost 
its  spirituality,  when  the  salt  has  lost  its  savor, 
it  has  been  irresponsive  to  social  needs  or  has 
resorted  to  unscriptural  methods  for  their  relief. 
The  more  spiritual  the  church  has  been,  the  more 
sensitive  it  has  been  to  human  needs  and  the 
swifter  to  respond  to  them.  The  methods  of  that 
response,  the  outward  forms  of  its  activity,  have 
changed  with  the  changing  conditions;  but  what- 
ever the  forms  of  service  undertaken,  genuine 
success  has  always  depended,  and  will  depend  ever- 
more, upon  the  vital  principle  and  spiritual  pur- 
pose which  inspire  and  pervade  them  all. 

The  past  is  often  characterized  as  the  age  of 
the  individual,  while  the  present  is  spoken  of,  by 
way  of  contrast,  as  the  social  age,  with  its  wide- 
spread social  sympathies  and  numberless  social 
activities.  There  may  be  some  truth  in  this  dis- 
tinction, says  Dr.  Cleland  B.  McAfee,  but  there 
is  danger  of  its  being  overaccented.     "  There  were 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       201 

many  of  our  fathers  and  grandfathers,"  he  says, 
"  who  were  mightily  concerned  with  the  mass  of 
the  people,  and  looked  as  carefully  as  we  do  for 
a  corrective  of  social  evils."  He  adds  as  a  con- 
spicuous evidence  of  this  fact,  "  The  first  English 
translations  of  the  Bible  were  fruits  of  the  social 
impulse."  Tyndale  said,  "  If  God  give  me  life, 
the  plowboys  shall  know  more  of  the  Scriptures 
than  you  do."  The  same  is  true  of  the  German 
Bible  of  Luther.  No  movement  of  modern  times 
can  compare  with  the  enlightening,  emancipating, 
uplifting,  equalizing,  ameliorating  influence  of 
that  movement  which  gave  the  word  of  God  to  the 
people  in  their  native  tongue.  That  social  im- 
pulse, born  of  a  devout  spiritual  faith,  was  the 
author  of  all  that  is  good  in  our  modern  civiliza- 
tion, and  contained  the  prophecy  of  that  perfect 
social  democracy  for  which  the  world  still  waits. 

It  is  an  acknowledged  fact,  then,  that  the  Gos- 
pel when  rightly  interpreted  is  individualistic  and 
socialistic  in  the  truest  sense,  and  at  the  same  time. 
"  Exclusively  it  is  neither;  inclusively  it  is  both." 
Its  individualism  is  utterly  free  from  all  taint  of 
narrowness  or  selfishness.  Its  socialism  is  di- 
vinely spiritual.  Its  aim  for  the  individual  is 
likeness  to  Christ,  the  perfect  man,  our  elder 
brother,  in  character  and  in  life,  and  individual 
perfection  of  character  includes  the  recognition  of 


202     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

all  social  obligations  and  the  practice  of  all  social 
virtues.  Redeemed  men  will  inevitably  produce 
a  redeemed  society  and  a  redeemed  humanity. 
Dean  Shailer  Mathews  of  the  Chicago  Univer- 
sity, in  an  admirable  paper  on  the  subject,  "  A 
Strategic  Movement  for  Baptists,"  with  a  sub- 
title, "  A  Platform  and  an  Opportunity,"  declares 
in  Article  8  of  his  Platform.  "  The  individual 
possessed  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  of  supreme 
worth.  Baptists  recognize  no  antithesis  between 
the  individual  and  the  social  Gospel.  They  work 
for  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  may  be  counted  upon 
to  champion  every  advance  toward  social  right- 
eousness. But  they  insist  that  the  individual  Is 
not  to  be  lost  In  the  mass,  and  that  a  regenerate 
society  is  possible  only  when  composed  of  re- 
generate people.  They  therefore  seek  to  de- 
velop Individual  lives  into  religious  and  moral  ef- 
ficiency rather  than  to  superimpose  upon  them 
religious  authority  or  any  form  of  ecclesiastical 
aristocracy."  Mr.  R.  H.  Coates,  an  English  au- 
thor, in  his  volume  entitled  "  Types  of  English 
Piety,"  distinguishes  the  evangelical  type  from 
the  sacerdotal  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
from  the  mystical,  In  that  "  it  seeks  to  approach 
God  through  the  redeemed  conscience,  the  moral 
will,  and  the  establishment  of  the  righteous  State," 
and  demands  In  the  true  saint  not  "  the  anaemic 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        203 

and  aureoled  recluse,"  but  "  the  full  blooded  and 
effective  citizen  with  a  passion  for  the  sovereignty 
of  God  in  the  affairs  of  the  world." 

Though  present-day  Christians  come  far  short 
of  attaining  their  sublime  ideal,  they  are  in  a  mul- 
titude of  instances  prayerfully  striving  to  make  it 
practical  and  real.  Imperfect  as  the  life  of  the 
church  may  appear,  when  compared  with  the  one 
perfect  Example  of  obedience,  of  purity  and  of 
love,  history  records  no  higher  level.  The  hum- 
ble washerwoman  exclaimed,  looking  upon  her 
washing  as  It  hung  upon  the  line  amid  the  falling 
snow,  "  Nothing  can  stand  comparison  with  God 
Almighty's  whiteness."  There  Is,  we  must  be- 
lieve, a  purity  and  integrity  and  completeness  of 
character  yet  to  be  secured.  There  are  heights 
yet  to  be  won  even  In  our  present  state  of  exist- 
ence. The  testimony  of  the  living  church  is  yet 
to  be  a  more  potent  and  convincing  force  In  the 
regeneration  of  men  and  In  the  perfecting  of  so- 
cial conditions.  While  the  perfect  life  and  the 
perfect  character  and  the  perfect  society  are  to 
be  realized  in  Heaven,  when  we  shall  see  the  great 
Son  of  God  as  He  is,  and  be  like  Him,  this  vision 
and  hope  are  not  the  lifeless  dream  of  the  mys- 
tic, nor  the  Idle  fancy  of  the  visionary,  but  the 
glorious  Inspiration  of  the  Christian  believer,  as 
here  and  now  he  confronts  God  and  man  and 


204     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

duty.  It  is  everlastingly  true  that  "  he  that  hath 
this  hope  in  Him  (that  is  in  Christ)  purifieth  him- 
self even  as  He  is  pure." 

The  kingdom  of  God  or  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  for  whose  manifestation  the  whole  crea- 
tion groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain,  is  primarily, 
and  fundamentally,  and  essentially  spiritual  in  its 
nature.  It  is  not  to  be  identified  with  any  ec- 
clesiastical body  or  visible  realm,  and  is  not  to  be 
brought  about  by  organizations  or  reforms  or 
enactments  or  external  rite  or  force,  but  by  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  received  through  per- 
sonal faith.  We  need  to  remind  ourselves  con- 
stantly of  his  conception  of  it,  who  came  to  earth 
to  establish  it,  and  who  alone  as  acknowledged 
King  has  a  right  to  define  it,  and  power  to  estab- 
lish it.  To  the  Pharisees  who  thought  only  of 
an  outward  visible  kingdom,  and  demanded  of 
Christ  when  it  should  come.  He  answered,  "  The 
kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation," 
and  to  the  midnight  inquirer  He  disclosed  the 
unalterable  condition  of  admission  into  it,  when 
He  said  — "  Except  a  man  be  born  from  above, 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that  a  candid  and 
unprejudiced  review  of  the  recent  progress  of  the 
church  of  Christ  and  the  substantial  and  outstand- 
ing victories  it  has  already  won,  and  a  just  recog- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST        205 

nition  of  Its  present  life  and  spirit,  its  accumulated 
power  and  increasing  activity,  will  surely  lead  to 
three  results,  viz. : 

First,  a  profound  sense  of  gratitude  to  God  that 
in  spite  of  human  frailty  and  imperfection,  the 
weakness,  not  to  say  the  disobedience,  of  the  hu- 
man Instrumentality  with  which  God  works.  He 
has  marvelously  carried  forward  his  kingdom  in 
the  world,  until  the  name  of  Christ  is  now  highly 
exalted  in  much  of  the  thought,  the  affection  and 
the  life  of  the  nations. 

Secondly,  an  unshaken  conviction  In  the  funda- 
mental spiritual  nature  of  Christianity,  and  in  the 
adaptability  of  the  unchanging  Gospel  to  meet 
the  deepest  needs  of  the  human  heart,  and  to 
furnish  the  only  adequate  solution  for  the  ills 
which  now  afflict  or  may  hereafter  afflict  the  social 
organism. 

And  thirdly,  a  confident  assurance  that  God's 
promises  will  in  due  time  be  fulfilled  to  the  letter, 
that  "  in  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  shall  bow 
of  things  In  Heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and 
things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue 
shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,"  and  that 
"  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  He 
shall  reign  forever  and  ever." 

We  may  mourn  over  the  sometimes  apparently 


2o6     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

slow  coming  of  that  kingdom,  we  may  deplore 
the  coldness  and  indifference  of  many  who  bear 
the  name  of  Christ,  we  may  long  for  a  deeper 
consecration  of  heart  and  life  on  the  part  of  every 
disciple,  which  beginning  at  the  center  of  being 
shall  reach  the  outmost  circumference  of  human 
life  and  influence.  But  the  forces  of  good  are 
mightier  than  the  forces  of  evil.  It  is  God's  king- 
dom, whose  corner  stone  was  laid  at  infinite  cost, 
in  his  unerring  wisdom,  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  "  If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be 
against  us?"  So  long  as  God  lives  and  reigns, 
the  issue  cannot  be  uncertain.  When  Frederick 
Douglass  was  once  addressing  a  large  convention 
in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  in  ante-bellum  times, 
and  was  portraying  in  dark  and  hopeless  colors 
the  condition  of  his  enslaved  race,  the  voice  of 
Margaret  Fuller,  who  sat  behind  him  on  the  plat- 
form, was  suddenly  heard  saying,  "  Frederick, 
Frederick,  God  is  not  dead." 

We  may  not  accept  Browning's  optimistic  in- 
ference in  the  present  tense  in  which  he  put  it  — 

"  God  is  in  his  heavens, 
All's   right   with  the   world," 

for  many  things  are  far  from  right  in  the  social 
order  and  in  the  moral  condition  of  men.  But 
we  may  have  such  faith  in  God  and  in  his  invinci- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       207 

blc  purpose,  in  the  enlightening  power  of  his 
truth,  in  the  active  presence  of  his  regenerating 
Spirit  among  men,  and  in  the  efficiency  and  suf- 
ficiency of  the  agencies  which  He  has  ordained 
and  through  which  He  has  promised  to  work,  that 
we  can  calmly  and  fearlessly  affirm  that  in  his  own 
good  time  all  will  be  right  with  the  world.  "  His 
word  shall  not  return  unto  Him  void."  The 
battle  with  error  and  wrong  and  sin  will  not  be 
won  by  the  timid  and  discouraged,  but  by  the  con- 
fident and  courageous.  To  detect  the  evils  in 
human  society  and  the  tremendous  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom  is  not 
difficult,  and  requires  no  high  order  of  genius. 
To  face  them  unflinchingly,  and  march  "  breast 
forward,  never  doubting  clouds  will  break,"  to 
cry  in  the  darkest  hour  as  if  the  triumph  was  al- 
ready secured,  "  thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth 
us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 
that  is  noble,  that  is  Pauline,  that  is  Christlike. 
Christ  who  was  King  in  the  realm  of  truth,  the- 
ocentric,  redemptive  and  prophetic,  said  to  his 
trembling  disciples,  "  Fear  not,  little  flock,  for  it 
is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the 
kingdom."  There  is  no  room  for  pessimism  in 
the  Christian's  vocabulary.  His  attitude  should 
always  be  one  of  courage  and  expectancy.  Al- 
ready he  sees  the  dawn  of  that  new  day  which 


2o8     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

shall  dispel  all  the  darkness  and  sorrow  of  sin, 
and  gladden  the  whole  habitable  earth  with  its 
effulgence.  Back  of  all  our  timid  praying  and 
feeble  effort,  and  fronting  the  superhuman  tasks 
before  the  church  of  Christ,  stands  the  purpose  of 
the  Almighty,  inscribed  upon  the  uplifted  cross, 
and  voiced  in  the  predictions  of  Him  who  died 
and  rose  again,  and  whose  word  cannot  be  broken. 
To  some  men  these  predictions  may  seem  to 
be  only  an  unsubstantial  dream  inspired  by  Jewish 
hopes.  "  But  they  come  to  us  to-day,"  said  Presi- 
dent Ewing  in  his  eloquent  address  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, "  as  an  integral  element  in  his  message  to 
mankind,  and  they  assure  us  that  through  all 
difficulties  Christianity  moves  on  to  triumph,  a 
triumph  the  fruit  of  the  Redeemer's  sacrifice,  a 
triumph  achieved  not  by  worldly  forces  but  by  the 
power  that  comes  down  from  above,  and  they 
identify  that  triumph  with  the  personal  exaltation 
of  Jesus  upon  a  throne  of  ineffable  glory.  A 
dream,  is  it?  But  the  dreams  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  the  shaping  forces  of  history.  He  dreamed 
of  Calvary,  and  his  cross  to-day  is  the  hiding  place 
of  sinners.  He  dreamed  of  resurrection  —  and 
his  open  tomb  is  now  the  consolation  of  the  world. 
He  dreamed  of  a  church  He  would  build  —  and 
his  church  now  worships  Him  in  every  clime.     He 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST       209 

dreamed  of  his  return  to  conquer  and  reign  —  and 
amid  all  the  turmoil  of  these  latter  days  faith 
hears  his  herald's  voice,  and  sees  the  flashing  of 
his  chariot  wheels." 

The  following  jubilant  anthem  recently  ap- 
peared in  a  publication  in  what  was  once  darkest 
India. 

"  There's   a   light  upon  the  mountains,  and  the  day  is  at  the 

spring, 
When  our  eyes  shall  see  the  beauty  and  the  glory  of  the  King: 
Weary  was  our  heart  with  waiting  and  the  night-watch  seemed 

so  long. 
But  his  triumph-day  is  breaking,  and  we  hail  it  with  a  song. 
In  the  fading  of  the  starlight  we  can  see  the  coming  morn. 
And  the  lights  of  men  are  paling  in  the  splendors  of  the  dawn; 
For  the  eastern  skies  are  glowing  as  with  light  of  hidden  fire, 
And  the  hearts  of  men  are  stirring  with  throbs  of  deep  desire. 

There's  a  hush  of  expectation,  and  a  quiet  in  the  air. 

And   the   breath   of   God   is   moving   in   the   fervent   breath   of 

prayer ; 
For  the  suffering,  dying  Jesus  is  the  Christ  upon  the  throne. 
And  the  travail  of  our  spirit  is  the  travail  of  his  own. 
He  is  breaking  down  the  barriers,  he  is  casting  up  the  way; 
He  is  calling  for  his  angels  to  build  up  the  gates  of  day; 
But  his  angels  here  are  human,  not  the  shining  hosts  above, 
For  the  drum-beats  of  his  army  are  the  heart-beats  of  our  love. 
Hark!  we  hear  the  distant  music,  and  it  comes  with  fuller  swell, 
'Tis  the  triumph-song  of  Jesus,  of  our  King  Emmanuel! 
Zion,  go  ye  forth  to  meet  him!     And  my  soul,  be  swift  to  bring 
All  thy  sweetest  and  thy  dearest  for  the  triumph  of  our  King!  " 


CHAPTER  IV 

PEACE    AND    LIGHT    ON    THE    CROSS 

An  Interpretation 

WE  shall  never  be  able  to  comprehend  In  this 
life,  and  perhaps  not  in  the  life  to  come, 
the  extent  of  that  humiliation  and  the  depth  of 
that  agony,  when  the  great  Son  of  God  in  the 
form  of  a  servant  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body 
on  the  tree,  and  suffered  the  cruel  death  of  the 
cross  in  our  behalf.  But  the  end  has  now  come. 
The  rejections,  the  betrayal,  the  arrest,  the  denial 
and  abandonment  by  his  disciples,  the  mocking, 
the  scourging,  the  disgraceful  trial,  the  hateful 
sentence,  the  blackness  of  darkness,  the  pains  of 
the  crucifixion,  are  now  ended.  After  the  pro- 
longed and  agonizing  struggles  Christ's  soul  finds 
peace,  and  the  enveloping  clouds  are  riven  by 
rays  of  light.  This  new  mental  condition  is  in- 
dicated by  his  words,  "  Father,  into  thy  hands  I 
commend  my  spirit,"  and  by  the  last  brief  utter- 
ance which  fell  from  his  lips,  "  It  is  finished." 
These  are  words  of  deepest  significance. 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     211 

What  is  finished?  Not  simply  his  physical  and 
mental  suffering,  and  not  merely  his  earthly  life 
among  men.  The  word  translated  "  finished  " 
means  accomplished,  not  ended  but  fulfilled.  It 
is  the  same  word  which  was  used  just  before, 
when  it  says,  "  Jesus  knowing  that  all  things  were 
now  accomplished,  that  the  Scripture  might  be 
fulfilled,  said  '  I  thirst.'  "  Christ's  life,  in  all  its 
manifestations  and  experiences,  was  the  accom- 
plishment of  an  eternal  purpose  which  culminated 
on  the  cross,  was  the  fulfillment  of  many  distinct 
prophecies  which  had  been  spoken  by  God's  serv- 
ants in  the  long  ages,  and  was  the  completion  of 
an  ordained  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 
TTiis  was  what  Christ  meant  when  He  said,  "  It 
is  finished,  or  accomplished."  This  was  the  basis 
of  his  peace.  He  looked  upon  a  finished  work, 
a  completed  mission,  a  divine  service  for  hu- 
manity, in  which  nothing  had  been  left  undone, 
in  which  there  had  been  no  failure,  no  omission, 
no  incompleteness. 

"  Life's  work  well  done, 
Life's  race  well  run, 
Life's  victory  won, 
Then  cometh  peace." 

And  this  it  was  that  let  light  through  the  dense, 
almost  impenetrable  darkness  that  enveloped  the 
cross.     He  who  had  just  before  cried  in  words 


212     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

fraught  with  strange,  mysterious  meaning,  "  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me!" 
now  says  in  loving,  filial  confidence,  "  Father, 
into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 

Let  us  think  for  a  few  moments  of  what  Christ 
meant  when  He  uttered  those  final  words,  "  It  is 
accomplished."  The  Scriptures  frequently  as- 
cribe the  coming  of  Christ  into  the  world  and  his 
mission  of  salvation  to  the  gracious  and  eternal 
purpose  of  God.  Christ's  advent  was  no  after- 
thought. Christ's  crucifixion  was  no  unforeseen 
tragedy  of  local  significance.  To  make  the  Chris- 
tian religion  an  affair  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  or  the  natural  evolution  of  the  re- 
ligious thinking  of  the  Jewish  race  is  to  rob  It  of 
its  divine,  its  heaven-born,  its  God-born  origin, 
and  to  deny  to  it  its  repeated  and  exalted  claims. 
Back  of  the  cross,  and  back  of  the  life,  and  back 
of  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ  stood  the  purpose 
and  the  grace  of  the  Almighty.  Calvary  was 
planned  in  the  council  chamber  of  Heaven.  Are 
we  not  told  that  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but  have  ever- 
lasting life?"  Did  not  Jesus  say,  "  I  came  not 
to  do  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent 
me,"  and  as  He  approached  the  end  of  his  life, 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     213 

did  He  not  declare,  "  I  have  finished  the  work 
which  Thou  gavest  me  to  do  "? 

Christ's  ministry  of  grace  and  suffering,  from 
beginning  to  end,  from  Bethlehem  to  Calvary,  was 
the  fulfillment  of  a  preconceived  programme. 
Peter  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost  told  the  crucifiers  of 
Christ  that  He  was  delivered  to  them  according 
to  "  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge 
of  God,"  which  however  did  not  relieve  them  of 
their  responsibility  and  guilt,  for  they  had  taken 
Him,  and  "  by  wicked  hands  had  crucified  and 
slain  Him."  Christianity  is  older  than  the  Chris- 
tian era,  yes,  older  even  than  the  human  race. 
Christ  was  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world."  The  message  of  the 
gospel  is  God's  message,  clothed  with  divine  au- 
thority and  grace  and  power.  When  Christ  hung 
upon  the  cross  of  Calvary  his  soul  found  rest  in 
the  thought  that  the  eternal  purpose  of  the  Father 
was  at  last  accomplished. 

But  more  than  that;  all  along  through  the  ages 
that  purpose  had  found  expression  in  numerous 
prophetic  utterances  and  in  significant  rites  and 
symbols.  Beginning  in  the  garden  where  man 
fell,  and  continuing  with  little  interruption  until 
the  last  prophet  had  spoken  for  God,  the  hopes 
of  men  were  pointed  to  the  coming  Saviour.  The 
books  we  call  the  Old  Testament,  which  contain 


214     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

the  sacredly  preserved  records  of  God's  dealings 
with  his  ancient  people,  are  all  aglow  with 
promises  of  a  divine  Deliverer,  who  should 
"  preach  deliverance  to  the  spiritually  captive,  the 
opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound,  and 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  Be- 
tween three  and  four  hundred  distinct  prophecies, 
interpreted  as  referring  to  Christ  by  Christ  him- 
self and  his  apostles,  and  by  the  devout  scholar- 
ship of  the  world,  point  to  his  birth,  to  his  spirit, 
to  his  character,  to  his  mission,  to  his  sufferings 
and  their  purpose,  and  to  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion. Christ's  portrait  was  drawn,  his  mission 
foretold,  his  character  portrayed,  his  biography 
outlined,  before  He  entered  Mary's  humble  home 
in  far  Judea.  Christ  recognized  the  portrait  and 
bore  witness  to  its  genuineness  and  accuracy,  say- 
ing again  and  again,  "  That  the  Scriptures  may  be 
fulfilled,"  "  These  are  they  which  testify  of  me." 
To  the  sorrowing  and  disappointed  disciples, 
mourning  over  their  crucified  and  buried  Master 
He  said,  "  Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered  these 
things  and  to  enter  into  his  glory?  And  begin- 
ning at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  He  expounded 
unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concern- 
ing Himself."  "  One  jot  or  one  tittle,"  He  said, 
"  shall  not  pass  away  till  all  be  fulfilled." 

The  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     215 

stand  or  fall  together.  They  are  bound  together 
by  the  living  personality  of  Him  who  was  Son 
of  God  and  Son  of  Man,  child  of  prophecy  and 
subject  of  history.  Prophecy  points  forward  to 
reality,  and  reality  answers  back  to  prophecy.  As 
has  been  said,  "  The  New  Testament  is  concealed 
in  the  Old,  and  the  Old  Testament  is  revealed  in 
the  New."  Neither  can  be  adequately  under- 
stood without  the  other.  If  one  is  the  lock,  the 
other  is  the  key.  If  one  is  the  image  in  the 
mirror,  the  other  is  the  glorious  form  and  face. 
If  one  is  the  blessed  hope  and  longing,  the  other 
is  the  full  and  perfect  realization.  If  one  is  the 
bud,  the  other  is  the  consummate  flower.  If  one 
is  the  voice  of  God  by  his  ancient  prophets,  the 
other  is  the  Word  of  God  made  flesh  in  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  And  so  the  suffering 
Christ  could  say  peacefully  at  last,  when  He 
thought  of  the  long  line  of  splendid  prophecy 
stretching  through  the  ages,  with  which  He  was 
perfectly  familiar,  *'  It  is  accomplished." 

But  once  more.  God's  eternal  purpose  being 
fulfilled,  and  the  ancient  prophecies  to  the  mi- 
nutest detail  being  also  fulfilled,  Christ  could  now 
look  upon  his  mission  to  earth  for  the  revelation 
of  God's  grace  and  the  salvation  of  lost  men  as 
fully  accomplished.  He  had  the  peace  which 
comes   from  the   consciousness  of  a   perfect  life 


2i6     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

and  a  completed  service.  He  had  left  nothing 
undone.  He  had  failed  at  no  point.  His  cru- 
cifixion by  which  He  had  offered  Himself  a  sacri- 
fice for  the  sins  of  the  world,  was  the  culmination 
and  the  crowning  of  his  life  of  sinlessness  and 
self-sacrifice,  just  as  his  resurrection  would  be  the 
crowning  of  it  all,  when  He  should  be  "  declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power."  He  could  now 
say,  "  Now  lettest  Thou  thy  Son  depart  in  peace, 
for  I  have  accomplished  and  made  known  thy 
salvation.  Thou  canst  now  be  just  and  the  justi- 
fier  of  all  who  repent  and  believe.  Whosoever 
shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
saved."  The  way  is  now  open  from  earth  to 
heaven.  The  method  of  the  world's  salvation  is 
now  perfected,  and  needs  no  amendment  or  sup- 
plement. All  the  moral  and  spiritual  conditions 
have  been  met.  The  provisions  are  ample  for  all 
nations  and  for  all  ages  of  the  world.  The 
shadow  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  shall  fall  with 
healing  power  upon  every  land  and  to  the  last 
syllable  of  recorded  time.  "  Enough  for  each, 
enough  for  all,  enough  forevermore."  And  so 
Christ  could  now  say  to  his  disciples,  "  Go  ye,  go 
ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  my  Gospel  to 
every  creature,"  the  unchangeable  Gospel  of  God's 
infinite  love,  of  which  the  cross  shall  be  the  per- 
fect and  enduring  symbol.     This  was  the  supreme 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     217 

element  in  Christ's  satisfaction.  He  became  a 
perfect  Saviour,  able  to  save  to  the  utmost  all  that 
come  unto  God  by  Him. 

Christ's  words  were,  indeed,  words  of  divinest 
wisdom  and  truth,  and  have  enriched  the  thought, 
the  faith  and  the  literature  of  the  world.  All 
students  of  philosophy  and  ethics  and  religion  will 
ever  sit  at  his  feet.  "  No  man  ever  spake  like 
this  Man."  But  Christ  was  more  than  a  teacher. 
His  spirit  and  life  were  absolutely  perfect,  with- 
out stain  or  flaw,  able  to  bear  the  closest  and  even 
the  hostile  scrutiny  of  men,  and  to  receive  the 
full  commendation  of  God,  illustrating  the  highest 
morality  and  the  divinest  purity.  He  was  "  the 
brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person."  He  was  pronounced 
"  holy,  harmless  and  undefiled,  and  separate  from 
sinners,"  that  is.  He  constituted  a  class  by  Him- 
self, the  very  image  of  Deity,  the  typical,  the 
unparalleled  Man.  Conscious  of  his  moral  in- 
tegrity He  could  challenge  the  whole  world, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  "  Which  of  you  con- 
vinceth  me  of  sin?  "  Yet  Christ  was  more  than 
an  example  of  righteous  obedience  to  the  holy  and 
perfect  law  of  God.  If  that  was  all  He  was,  He 
would  have  been  no  Saviour  for  sinners,  but  only 
a  new  and  higher  law  of  life,  a  perfect  mirror  to 
reveal  human  imperfection  and  shortcomings  and 


2i8     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

guilt,  a  holy  Judge  whose  words  would  be  only 
words  of  condemnation  for  us  all. 

Christ  laid  special  emphasis  upon  his  suffer- 
ings and  death  as  the  supreme  evidence  of  the 
forgiving  grace  of  God  and  his  own  Saviourhood, 
and  as  providing  the  sure  basis  of  all  hope  of  per- 
fect character  and  of  eternal  life  and  blessedness. 
"  Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered  these  things?  " 
"  The  good  shepherd  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep." 
"  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ran- 
som for  many."  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth  (on  the  cross)  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me."  Here  was  the  magnetic  power,  the  divine 
attraction,  the  resistless  charm  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Here  was  the  judgment,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
atonement,  of  human  guilt.  Here  was  the  all- 
conquering  grace  of  the  Almighty.  Here  was  the 
sure  foundation  of  the  world's  immortal  hope.  A 
year  without  passion  week  would  be  an  empty 
mockery  in  the  calendar  of  the  Christian  church; 
passion  week  without  Good  Friday  would  be  pow- 
erless in  the  appeal  to  God  or  to  men. 

When  the  apostle  writing  to  the  Hebrews  said, 
"  Jesus  was  made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels 
for  the  suffering  of  death  .  .  .  that  He  by  the 
grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every  man," 
he  proclaimed  the  sufferings  and  death  of  the  Son 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     219 

of  God  to  be  the  end,  the  object,  the  purpose  of 
his  humihation  and  mission  to  earth,  the  ordained 
completion  of  his  earthly  ministry,  the  crowning 
act  of  his  redemptive  work.  And  when  he  added, 
"  For  it  became  Him  ...  in  bringing  many  sons 
unto  glory  to  make  the  Captain  of  their  salvation 
perfect  through  sufferings,"  he  referred  not  to 
Christ's  personal  character,  as  is  sometimes  er- 
roneously supposed,  for  the  moral  character  of 
Christ  was  absolutely  sinless  and  needed  no  per- 
fecting, but  he  referred  unquestionably  to  his 
official  character.  He  was  made  a  perfect 
Saviour,  the  victorious  Captain  of  our  salvation, 
by  his  sufferings  and  death  on  the  cross  of  Cal- 
vary. And  so  Christ  "  endured  the  cross,  de- 
spising the  shame,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  be- 
fore Him."  He  put  Himself  under  the  great  law 
of  life  and  productiveness.  "  The  hour  is  come 
that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified.  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall 
into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone,  but  if 
it  die  It  bringeth  forth  much  fruit."  This  is  the 
ordained,  the  heaven-prescribed  condition  to  which 
Christ  submitted.  First  the  cross  and  the  shame, 
then  the  crown  of  joy  and  the  offered  salvation; 
first  the  buried  seed  and  then  the  abundant  har- 
vest; first  the  agony  and  death  and  then  the  peace 
of  an  assured  and  world-wide  victory.     As  the 


220     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Saviour  at  that  final  moment  looked  upon  his  fin- 
ished work,  and  saw  the  strong  foundation  now 
laid  for  the  spiritual  temple  of  believing  souls, 
Himself  being  the  chief  corner  stone,  and  beheld 
in  prophetic  vision  the  great  multitude  of  those 
who  in  all  lands  and  ages  should  accept  his 
invitation,  and  trust  in  his  redeeming  blood,  one 
can  almost  hear  Him  say  calmly,  peacefully,  tri- 
umphantly, "  It  is  accomplished." 

And  such  peace  of  soul  had  for  its  accompani- 
ment "  the  light  that  never  shone  on  land  or  sea." 
The  darkness  which  had  grown  denser  and  denser, 
is  now  broken.  After  a  starless  night  the  dawn 
flashes  up  the  eastern  sky.  The  golden  light  is 
the  light  of  the  Father's  countenance  in  loving 
approval,  whose  words  of  endorsement,  heard  at 
the  beginning  and  then  again  at  the  middle  of 
Christ's  public  ministry,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
in  whom  I  am  well  pleased,"  we  may  well  be- 
lieve fell  softly  on  Jesus'  ear  at  this  time  also. 
When  Christ  said  trustingly  "  Father,"  the  Father 
smiled  approvingly,  "  My  Son."  It  is  the  light 
of  the  upper  home  and  the  many  mansions,  where 
no  night  is,  because  no  sin  or  sorrow  enters  there. 
It  is  the  light  of  that  ineffable  glory  which  Christ 
had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was,  and 
(may  we  not  say  it?)  the  light  of  that  greater 
glory  which  is  to  be,  when  love's  redeeming  work 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     221 

is  done,  when  the  cross  and  passion  of  Christ  have 
borne  their  legitimate  and  promised  fruit,  and 
when  the  children  of  light  shall  all  be  gathered 
within  the  walls  of  that  heavenly  city  of  which 
the  apostle  John  says,  "  It  had  no  need  of  the 
sun,  neither  of  the  moon,  to  shine  in  it,  for  the 
glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the 
light  thereof,  and  the  nations  of  them  which  are 
saved  shall  walk  in  the  light  of  it,  and  the  kings 
of  the  earth  do  bring  their  glory  and  honor  into 
it."  Then  will  our  risen  and  glorified  Saviour 
say  with  a  new  emphasis,  "  It  is  accomplished." 

The  cross  of  Christ  can  never  be  repeated  or 
duplicated.  In  its  sacrificial  relation  to  divine 
law  and  human  guilt  it  stands  alone.  Christ  was 
both  priest  and  sacrifice.  He  offered  Himself 
once  for  all.  "  After  He  had  offered  one  sacrifice 
for  sins  forever  He  sat  down  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  Yet  we  are  told  that  in  some  true  sense, 
even  in  his  sufferings,  Christ  is  an  example  for 
his  followers.  "  Because  Christ  also  suffered  for 
us,  leaving  us  an  example,  that  ye  should  follow 
his  steps,"  language  which  means  as  the  context 
clearly  shows,  that  the  spirit  which  Christ  mani- 
fested in  his  supreme  sufferings,  the  spirit  of 
meekness,  patience  and  unmurmuring  submissive- 
ness,  is  to  be  manifested  by  his  disciples  in  the 
lesser  sufferings  which  they  may  be  called  to  en- 


222     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

dure.  And  again  Paul  says  to  the  Colossians,  In 
striking  language,  "  Who  now  rejoice  In  my  suf- 
ferings for  you,  and  fill  up  that  which  is  behind 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his 
body's  sake,  which  is  the  church."  The  progress 
of  Christ's  kingdom  Is  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
consecration  and  the  self-sacrifice  of  those  who 
bear  his  name.  The  spirit  of  the  cross  must  enter 
into  all  true,  acceptable  and  successful  life.  He 
who  would  follow  Christ  and  carry  on  the  work 
of  Christ,  must  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  after 
Christ.  As  Lightfoot  says  with  an  intelligent  ap- 
preciation of  the  apostle's  words,  "  The  church 
is  built  up  by  repeated  acts  of  self-denial  In  suc- 
cessive generations.  They  continue  the  work 
which  Christ  began."  They  fill  up  that  measure 
of  service  and  self-sacrifice  and  suffering  which 
the  sufferings  of  Christ  have  left  for  those  who 
come  after  Him  to  do.  But  as  Lightfoot  con- 
tinues, "  The  Idea  of  expiation  or  satisfaction  is 
wholly  absent  from  the  passage."  The  true  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  who  are  carrying  on  their  hearts 
the  burden  of  the  world's  redemption,  are  so 
identified  with  Christ  that  their  sufferings  are  his 
sufferings,  and  their  work  is  the  continuation  of 
the  work  which  He  inaugurated,  and  so  they  come 
to  know  "  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings  "  as 
well  as  "  the  power  of  his  resurrection." 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     223 

Is  this  the  ordinary  Christian  experience?  Do 
we  know  Christ  as  a  suffering  Saviour?  Is  his 
cross  so  wrought  into  our  lives  that  when  we 
come  to  the  end  of  life  his  peace  shall  be  our 
peace,  and  his  light  shall  be  our  light?  If  we 
would  know  Christ  In  his  exaltation  we  must  know 
Him  In  his  humiliation.  To  rejoice  with  Him  In 
his  glory  we  must  watch  with  Him  in  the  garden 
and  weep  with  Him  at  the  cross.  No  story  could 
be  more  graphic  or  more  pathetic  than  the  story 
of  Christ's  last  days  on  earth,  the  clear  vision  of 
the  cross,  the  deepening  shadows  on  his  sensitive 
spirit,  the  scorn  and  rejection  of  men,  and  the 
unbroken  darkness  which  rested  down  upon  Cal- 
vary's summit  and  its  expiring  sufferer.  Surely, 
we  say,  He  became  for  us  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief."  But  have  our  hearts  been 
stirred  within  us?  Have  the  emotions  of  peni- 
tence, of  sympathetic  appreciation,  of  gratitude, 
of  love  and  devotion  been  kindled  In  our  souls? 
Shall  we  go  forth  from  such  meditations  to  a  larger 
service  of  self-denial  for  Him  who  kept  nothing 
back,  but  loved  us  unto  death?  Is  not  our  re- 
ligion too  often  coldly  intellectual,  reaching  not  to 
the  deeper  sensIbiHtles  of  the  spirit,  and  producing 
no  permanent  results  In  the  conduct  and  life? 
How  calm  and  cool  we  are,  and  apparently  un- 
moved, while  we  think  of  the  great  Son  of  God 


224     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

pouring  out  his  life  on  the  cross!  Do  we  not 
wickedly  repress  and  stifle  our  emotions,  if  we 
have  any?  We  are  absorbed  in  our  petty  cares 
and  pleasures,  and  think  little  of  the  sinless,  suf- 
fering Christ  and  the  supreme  tragedy  of  human 
history,  which  was  enacted  for  us.  We  talk  of 
the  common  trials  and  burdens  of  life  as  if  they 
were  "  crosses."  It  is  a  pitiful  travesty  of  the 
word.  The  cross  is  the  symbol  of  intense  suffer- 
ing, of  total  self-sacrifice,  of  the  pouring  out  of 
life  unto  death.  And  so  we  come  to  measure  the 
great  cross  of  Christ  with  its  immeasurable  wealth 
of  meaning  and  its  unspeakable  agony  by  the  in- 
significant "  crosses  "  of  our  personal  experience, 
as  we  call  them. 

We  may  not  have  fallen  so  low  in  spiritual  dis- 
cernment and  in  religious  fervor  as  the  England 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  of  which  an  historian 
says,  "  The  Church  as  a  whole,  at  this  period,  was 
cold  and  its  teaching  rationalistic.  The  living  and 
present  Christ  seemed  to  be  left  out  of  its  theology. 
The  necessity  of  conversion  was  not  brought  home 
to  the  people.  Enthusiasm  or  zeal  was  repressed. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  warned  Heber, 
setting  out  on  his  glorious  missionary  career  in  In- 
dia, to  put  down  enthusiasm.  It  was,  we  read,  an 
age  of  artificial  formality,  of  self-satisfied  enlight- 
enment, of  material  prosperity  and  lethargy.    Like 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     225 

a  malarious  fog,  it  crept  into  the  church,  and  laid 
its  cold  hand  upon  her  heart." 

I  do  not  forget  the  hopeful  movements  of  our 
day,  the  young  people's  uprising,  the  splendid  ac- 
tivity of  many  Christian  women,  the  effort  to 
spread  the  missionary  spirit  which  is  the  vital 
spirit  of  Christianity,  indeed  without  which  there 
is  no  Christianity,  and  '*  the  men  and  religion  for- 
ward movement,"  in  which  a  part  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Christ  are  enlisted.  But  Christ  died  alike 
for  all.  His  sufferings  were  endured  for  all.  His 
cross  makes  its  appeal  to  every  sincere  and  thought- 
ful heart.  His  dying  love  should  kindle  respon- 
sive love  in  every  living,  breathing  soul.  "  We 
love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us  ";  equal  love 
for  souls  equally  needy  demands  a  response 
measured  only  by  individual  ability  and  capacity. 
We  are  apt  to  lose  ourselves  in  the  multitude. 
W^e  make  the  love  and  the  sufferings  of  Christ  so 
general  in  their  scope  as  to  weaken  the  force  of 
the  individual  application.  The  application  should 
be  strongly  and  tremendously  personal,  as  at  the 
conversion  so  all  through  the  Christian  life  and 
experience.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  "  God  so 
loved  the  world."  No  man  ever  yet  found  the 
peace  of  forgiveness  who  did  not  feel  the  flame 
of  God's  love  focused  by  the  lens  of  Christ's  cross 
on  his  own  soul.     And  no  man  ever  yet  accom- 


226     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

plished  much  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  who  did 
not  live  under  the  ever  present  inspiration  and 
resistless  impulse  of  the  apostolic  conviction, 
"  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me."  This 
burning  conviction,  this  personal  appropriation  of 
the  benefit  of  Christ's  passion,  will  keep  the  heart 
glowing  with  a  true,  self-sacrificing,  consistent,  un- 
dying devotion  to  the  divine  Lamb  of  Calvary. 

We  sing  with  some  degree  of  warmth,  it  may  be. 
Dr.  Holmes'  fine  hymn, 

"  Grant  us  thy  truth  to  make  us  free, 
And  kindling  hearts  that  burn  for  Thee, 
Till  all  thy  living  altars  claim 
One  holy  light,  one  heavenly  flame." 

And  then  before  the  echo  of  our  song  dies  upon 
the  ear,  we  lapse  into  a  state  of  almost  refrigera- 
tor coldness  and  forgetfulness  and  inactivity.  Our 
faith  often  finds  sympathetic  utterance  and  con- 
firmation in  our  Christian  hymns,  which  are  filled 
with  the  music  of  redeeming  love.  Our  beliefs 
and  our  aspirations,  our  creeds  and  our  hopes  are 
wedded  in  the  songs  of  the  sanctuary.  With  sub- 
dued hearts  and  tearful  eyes  we  sing, 

"  We  may  not  know,  we  cannot  tell 
What  pains  He  had  to  bear; 
But  we  believe  it  was  for  us 
He  hung  and  suffered  there." 

Do  we  honestly  believe  it,  and  does  that  belief  in- 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     227 

rtame  our  love,  and  move  us  on  to  ever  fresli  purity 
of  life  and  constant  acts  of  self-sacrificing  and 
loyal  devotion?     We  sing  tenderly, 

"  Oh,  dearly,  dearly  has  He  loved, 

And    we  imist   love   Him   too, 
And  trust  in  his  redeeming  blood. 
And  try  his  works  to  do." 

Do  we  honestly  try,  and  are  our  efforts  crowned 
with  any  degree  of  success,  so  that  we  can  truly 
affirm  that  "  we  know  Him  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection  and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings, 
being  made  conformable  unto  his  death  "?  Oh, 
that  our  meditations  upon  the  passion  of  Christ 
may  kindle  in  our  hearts  a  holy,  a  burning  passion 
to  be  like  Christ,  to  make  known  Christ,  and  to 
know  and  to  do  the  will  of  our  Father  who  is  in 
heaven,  as  Christ  did!  May  we  strive  to  live  up 
to  the  standard  of  our  confession  expressed  in  our 
hymns.  May  our  Christian  songs  sing  themselves 
into  our  lives. 

It  is  sometimes  said,  as  if  it  was  a  sign  and  evi- 
dence of  progress,  that  the  emphasis  to-day  in  the 
Christian  world  is  not  upon  faith  but  upon  life, 
not  upon  doctrine  but  upon  practice.  This  re- 
veals a  strange,  dangerous  and  culpable  forgetful- 
ness  of  the  incontrovertible  fact  that  Christian  life 
is  born  and  nourished  by  Christian  faith,  and  noth- 
ing else,  that  behind  all  acceptable  practice  and 


228     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

sustained  activity  there  must  be  a  firm  and  intel- 
ligent and  loving  grasp  of  the  vital  and  essential 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  viz.,  the  supernatural 
birth  and  lordship  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  miracle- 
working  power,  his  sacrificial  death  on  the  cross 
and  his  bodily  resurrection.  The  rationalistic 
periods  of  history  have  been  the  dead  periods  of 
history.  The  churches  that  have  ignored  or  de- 
nied the  true  nature  and  mission  of  the  Son  of 
God,  have  been  the  inactive,  non-missionary,  fruit- 
less and  stagnant  churches.  It  is  evermore  true 
that  "  as  a  man  thinketh  so  is  he."  A  decay  of 
faith  will  inevitably  result  in  the  weakening  of 
life.  You  cannot  keep  the  stream  full,  if  you  dry 
up  the  fountain.  Power  will  not  long  continue  if 
you  break  connection  with  the  dynamo.  A  living 
faith  in  the  sinless  and  crucified  Son  of  God  is  the 
only  sufficient  inspiration  to  personal  and  church 
activity  and  spiritual  success.  "  By  this  sign  con- 
quer." 

Dr.  Gore,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  protesting  against 
the  present  tendency  to  belittle  faith  in  essential 
truth  while  seeking  to  meet  the  demand  for  an  en- 
larged outward  activity,  declares  substantially, 
"  We  are  not  going  to  enrich  our  action  by  the 
impoverishment  of  our  thought.  A  skimmed  the- 
ology will  not  produce  a  more  intimate  philan- 
thropy.    We  are  not  going  to  become  more  ar- 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     229 

dent  lovers  of  men  by  the  cooling  of  our  love  for 
God."  And  Dr.  J.  H.  Jowett  in  his  Yale  Lec- 
tures, discussing  the  multiplication  of  organiza- 
tions to  the  neglect  of  "  the  vital,  the  inspirational, 
the  divine,"  says,  "  We  may  be  absorbed  in  de- 
A'ising  machinery,  and  careless  about  the  power 
which  is  to  make  it  go.     That  is  our  peril." 

The  cross  of  Christ  must  always  be  the  distin- 
guishing symbol  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  it 
has  been  for  nineteen  centuries,  conspicuous  in  its 
architecture,  central  in  its  creed  and  in  its  preach- 
ing, proclaimed  in  its  two  permanent  rites,  vital 
and  vitalizing  in  its  life,  the  secret  of  its  progress 
and  the  ordained  promise  of  its  final  conquest  and 
world-wide  triumph.  "  God  forbid  that  I  should 
glory,"  exclaimed  the  spirit-enlightened  apostle, 
*'  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  A 
sad  day  will  it  be  for  the  Christian  church,  if  it 
ever  loses  its  relish  for  such  hymns  as  these: 

"  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory," 

"Rock  of  ages  cleft  for  me," 

"  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, 
Thou  Larab  of  Calvary, 
Saviour  divine." 

President  E.  Y.  Mullins  has  said,  "  In  every 
age  of  Christian  power  and  aggressiveness  the 
cross  has  been  prominent.     Christianity  possesses 


230     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

an  unrivaled  view  of  God  and  the  universe,  a 
matchless  system  of  ethics.  It  would  probably 
live  and  eventually  overcome  all  other  religions 
for  these  reasons  alone.  But  its  most  distinctive 
characteristic,  the  one  thing  which  has  always 
given  it  supreme  regenerating  power  in  the  indi- 
vidual and  in  society,  is  its  crucified  Redeemer. 
Liberal  Christianity  has  popularity  and  ethics  and 
culture;  evangelical  Christianity  has  transforming 
power.  It  was  the  message  of  the  cross  that  gave 
Paul  his  power;  it  is  the  cross  that  lends  power 
to  the  preacher  to-day;  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
message  of  the  cross,  truly  believed  and  sincerely 
preached,  will  continue  to  be  the  supreme  power 
in  Christian  history  to  the  end." 

We  shall  all  come  down  to  the  end  of  life,  as 
did  Christ.  May  we  come  down  to  it  in  peace 
and  in  light,  as  He  did?  We  shall  not  be  able  to 
say  then,  "  I  have  finished  the  work,  which  Thou 
gavest  me  to  do,"  for  all  human  work  and  achieve- 
ment are  marred  by  weaknesses  and  imperfections. 
As  we  take  the  backward  look  we  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  confess,  notwithstanding  our  most  stren- 
uous endeavor,  "  We  have  done  the  things  we 
ought  not  to  have  done,  and  have  left  undone  the 
things  we  ought  to  have  done."  Our  peace  will 
not  be  the  peace  that  comes  from  entire  satisfac- 
tion with  the  work  we  have  accomplished  and  a 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     231 

consciousness  that  we  have  lived  a  life  of  perfect 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God.  Yet  we  may  have 
the  peace  of  Christ  in  our  hearts,  the  peace  that 
comes  from  fellowship  with  Him,  and  a  participa- 
tion in  the  rich  blessings  of  his  purchased  salva- 
tion. He  made  peace,  we  are  told,  "  by  the  blood 
of  his  cross,"  and  is  now  made  unto  all  sincere  be- 
lievers "  wisdom  and  righteousness,  sanctification 
and  redemption,"  so  that  we  can  sing  in  fullest 
confidence, 

"Thou,  O  Christ,  art  all  I  want; 
More  than  all  in  Thee  I  find." 

The  fact  and  the  method  are  clearly  revealed. 
"  Therefore  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Even 
now  amid  the  storm  and  stress  of  life's  experiences 
we  have  foretastes  of  that  peace  which  passes 
all  understanding,  which  is  satisfying  in  its  nature 
and  eternal  in  its  duration.  Surely  Christ  did  not 
mock  his  sorrowing  disciples  when  He  said  to 
them,  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you;  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you."  With  the  calm  assurance  of  a  tri- 
umphant faith  the  great  apostle  cried  out,  "  Who 
shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect? 
Shall  God  who  justifieth?  Who  is  he  that  con- 
demneth  ?  Is  it  Christ  who  died,  yea,  rather,  who 
is  risen  again,  and  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  and  also  maketh  intercession  for  us?  "    Such 


232     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

questions  bear  their  absurdity  on  their  face.  If 
the  Father  justifies,  and  the  Son  who  died  and 
rose  again,  intercedes  for  the  disciple,  his  safety 
at  the  hour  of  death  is  assured.  His  sins  are  com- 
pletely forgiven.  They  are,  as  it  were,  blotted 
out,  and  the  condemning  consciousness  of  his  sin 
is  utterly  silenced.  The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  but 
if  Christ  bore  the  believer's  sin  on  the  cross,  the 
sting  is  extracted.  Reconciliation  has  taken  the 
place  of  condemnation.  "  There  is  now  no  con- 
demnation to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  This 
is  the  mystery  of  Christ  and  the  glory  of  his  cross, 
revealed  in  the  experience  of  every  trusting  dis- 
ciple. Christ  bore  his  sins;  and  he  shares  Christ's 
peace.     It  is  a  double  fellowship. 

But  his  peace  rests  not  only  upon  what  Christ 
has  wrought  for  him,  but  upon  his  continued  love 
and  ever  living  interest.  "  Whom  He  loves  He 
loves  to  the  end."  Nothing,  not  even  death  with 
all  its  power,  "  shall  be  able  to  separate  him  from 
the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."  Christ's  earthly  mission  was  accom- 
plished; but  his  heavenly  service  still  goes  on,  and 
will  go  on  until  the  last  disciple  is  safely  sheltered 
in  the  heavenly  home.  The  dying  victim  of  Cal- 
vary has  become  the  ever  living  and  victorious 
intercessor  for  his  believing  and  accepted  follow- 
ers.    "  And  so  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  at  even- 


PEACE  AND  LIGHT  ON  CROSS     233 

ing  time  it  shall  be  light."  Every  humble  saint 
as  he  closes  his  eyes  upon  the  familiar  scenes  of  his 
earthly  sojourn,  and  looks  through  the  open  por- 
tal of  the  mansion  prepared  for  him,  can  calmly 
say  as  did  Stephen,  the  proto-martyr,  "  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit." 


CHAPTER  V 

MRS.     EMMA     WILLARD,     THE     PIONEER     IN     THE 
HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF   WOMEN 

ALL  great  movements  have  their  humble  be- 
ginnings. All  reforms  educational,  moral 
and  religious  can  be  traced  back  to  some  inspired 
soul  or  souls,  gifted  with  wisdom  in  advance  of 
their  time,  endowed  with  a  courage  which  scorns 
all  thought  of  defeat,  whose  dreams  become  con- 
victions, whose  desires  assume  the  nature  of  in- 
domitable purposes,  who  conquer  success  in  spite 
of  indifference,  ridicule  and  opposition.  All  ad- 
vance in  the  onward  march  of  civilization  has  been 
led  by  pioneers  who  pushed  out  into  the  untried, 
and  by  their  inspiring  example  have  extended  the 
boundaries  of  human  effort  and  knowledge  and 
happiness. 

The  higher  education  of  women  is  a  modern 
movement,  and  had  its  beginnings  within  the  mem- 
ory of  men  now  living.  It  was  a  reform  against 
long  continued  neglect  and  unaccountable  preju- 
dice, in  the  direction  of  the  completeness  and  exal- 
tation of  human  life,  personal,  domestic  and  social. 

234 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  235 

It  has  been  a  conspicuous  element  in  the  ad- 
vancing civihzation  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
has  given  a  distinction  and  a  glory  to  it,  which 
nothing  else  has.  It  is  doubtful  if  anything  has 
occurred  during  the  last  hundred  years  more  in- 
dicative of  the  progress  of  our  time  than  the  of- 
fering to  young  women  of  educational  advantages 
equal  to  those  provided  for  young  men.  I  wish  to 
call  attention  to  the  beginning  of  this  great  move- 
ment, and  to  the  name  and  service  of  one,  who 
must  ever  be  held  in  honor  as  the  richly  endowed, 
consecrated  and  successful  pioneer  in  the  higher 
education  of  woman. 

It  will  not  be  forgotten  by  those  familiar  with 
English  literature  that  Daniel  Defoe,  writing  in 
1697,  in  "An  Essay  upon  Projects,"  proposed 
among  other  things  "  An  Academy  for  Women," 
which  has  been  called  "  surprisingly  modern  "  in 
its  views  and  suggestions.  He  opened  his  plan 
with  the  following  generous  confession:  "  I  have 
often  thought  of  it  as  one  of  the  most  barbarous 
customs  in  the  world,  considering  us  as  a  civilized 
and  Christian  country,  that  we  deny  the  ad- 
vantages of  learning  to  women.  We  reproach  the 
sex  every  day  with  folly  and  impertinence,  while 
I  am  confident,  had  they  the  advantages  of  edu- 
cation equal  to  us,  they  would  be  guilty  of  less  than 
ourselves." 


236     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

After  discussing  the  question  of  woman's  ca- 
pacity and  native  endowment,  he  presented  his 
plan  of  having  one  plain  building  "  in  a  form  by 
itself,  as  well  as  in  a  place  by  itself,  the  gardens 
being  walled  in  and  surrounded  with  a  large  moat, 
and  but  one  entrance."  Admission  to  the  acad- 
emy should  be  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  stu- 
dents, and  also  continuance  in  it.  "  An  act  of  Par- 
liament should  make  it  felony,  without  clergy,  for 
any  man  to  enter  by  force  or  fraud  into  the  house." 
For  the  school  thus  secluded  and  guarded,  he  pro- 
posed a  curriculum  which  was  quite  full,  including 
languages,  history  and  literature,  as  well  as  music 
and  dancing.  Indeed  he  says,  "  To  such  whose 
genius  would  lead  them  to  it  I  would  deny  no 
sort  of  learning."  One  such  academy  at  least  he 
would  have  "  in  every  county  in  England,  and 
about  ten  for  the  city  of  London."  He  closed 
the  essay  with  the  following  paragraph,  "  I  need 
not  enlarge  upon  the  loss  the  defect  of  education 
is  to  the  sex,  nor  argue  the  benefit  of  the  contrary 
practice;  it  is  a  thing  that  will  be  more  easily 
granted  than  remedied.  This  chapter  is  but  an 
essay  at  the  thing;  and  I  refer  the  practice  to  those 
happy  days,  if  ever  they  shall  be,  when  men  shall 
be  wise  enough  to  mend  it." 

Those  happy  days  were  slow  in  coming.  One 
hundred  and  twenty-four  years  passed  away,  be- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  237 

fore  a  successful  attempt  was  made  to  mend  the 
condition  Defoe  deplored,  and  made  not  by  the 
wisdom  of  men,  but  by  the  enlightened  zeal  of  a 
woman. 

In  the  year  1821  there  was  founded  in  the  city 
of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  a  Female  Seminary,  so  called,  by 
Mrs.  Emma  Willard,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
furnishing  to  young  women  an  education  higher, 
broader  and  more  complete  than  any  then  open  to 
them,  or  hitherto  supposed  to  be  necessary  for 
them.  This  Seminary  still  exists,  and  for  ninety- 
two  years  has  sought  to  carry  out  under  various 
successful  administrations  the  noble  purpose  of  its 
gifted  founder  and  first  principal,  though  not  at- 
tracting to  itself  so  much  attention  from  the  out- 
side world  during  the  later  part  of  its  history  as 
during  the  earlier,  for  reasons  largely  external  to 
itself,  notably  because  of  the  growing  recognition 
and  triumph  of  its  purpose,  and  of  the  existence 
and  multiplication  of  similar  and  larger  institu- 
tions in  the  country. 

At  its  beginning  this  Seminary  was  a  new  move- 
ment, an  untried  experiment,  and  was  looked  upon 
by  many  minds  with  indifference  and  unbelief,  and 
by  not  a  few  with  open  hostility;  and  the  devoted 
founder  was  regarded  as  a  dreamer  or  a  fanatic. 
It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  put  ourselves  back  into  the 
educational  status  even  at  the  beginning  of  the  last 


238     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

century.  Indeed  we  are  quite  likely  to  be  de- 
ceived by  the  eloquent  perorations  of  those,  who 
laud  the  spirit,  plans  and  achievements  of  the  early 
settlers  of  this  western  world,  which  are  often 
"  without  fact  or  reason." 

Hon.  Andrew  S.  Draper,  Superintendent  of  Ed- 
ucation in  the  State  of  New  York,  speaking  of 
these  rose-colored  representations,  once  remarked 
facetiously,  that  from  them  one  would  expect  to 
find  a  schoolhouse  standing  on  Plymouth  Rock 
the  morning  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers.  The  truth  is  that  even  the  system  of 
common  schools  was  a  matter  of  slow  growth  in 
New  England  as  well  as  in  the  New  Netherlands, 
and  only  comparatively  recently  has  it  attained  the 
scope  and  completeness  which  it  now  has.  When 
the  nineteenth  century  dawned,  after  a  century  and 
three  quarters  of  struggle,  hardship  and  poverty, 
of  the  conquest  of  untamed  nature,  of  warfare 
with  the  Indians,  and  with  the  mother  country  in 
the  long  and  exhausting  struggle  for  national  in- 
dependence, there  were  hardly  more  than  twenty- 
five  institutions  called  Colleges  in  the  country,  and 
these  were  little  superior  to  modern  high  schools. 
They  were  all  of  course  for  young  men.  These 
first  educational  institutions  had  in  view  primarily 
the  preparation  of  candidates  for  the  Christian 
ministry    and   the    so-called   learned   professions. 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  239 

The  general  education  for  young  men  was  exceed- 
ingly meager  and  limited,  while  that  for  young 
women  was  distressingly  so.  In  many  cities  a 
high  school  supported  by  public  taxation  had  to 
fight  for  an  existence,  and  a  high  school  or  a 
Latin  school  distinctively  for  girls  was  long  and 
bitterly  opposed  in  the  Athens  of  America,  on  the 
ground  of  increased  taxation  and  declared  use- 
lessness. 

Mrs.  John  Adams,  near  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  said,  "  Female  education  in  the  best 
families  went  no  farther  than  writing  and  arith- 
metic, and  in  some  few  and  rare  instances,  music 
and  dancing."  The  question  of  woman's  sphere 
was  rarely  or  never  discussed  in  those  days,  either 
because  it  was  supposed  to  be  so  narrow  that  it 
was  hardly  worth  discussing,  or  because  it  was 
looked  upon  as  fixed  and  determined  by  the  de- 
crees of  nature  and  the  Almighty,  and  therefore 
unalterable  and  unimprovable. 

Such  was  the  condition  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  and  well  on  towards  its  middle,  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  well  as  on  this. 
Indeed  America  has  always  been  far  in  advance 
of  the  Mother  Country  on  the  subject  of  free, 
popular  education,  and  is  to-day,  an  education  free 
to  all  regardless  of  condition,  sex  or  religious  test. 
It  is  only  within  a  few  years  that  the  restriction 


240     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

was  removed  from  the  great  English  Universi- 
ties, and  Dissenters  admitted  to  their  privileges, 
and  the  Nonconformists  are  still  engaged  in  a  bit- 
ter struggle  for  their  rights,  and  suffering  arrest, 
loss  of  goods  and  imprisonment  for  the  sake  of 
conscience  and  principle.  However  backward  our 
own  country  was  in  its  sentiments,  and  in  making 
equal  educational  provision  for  its  sons  and  its 
daughters,  no  other  nation  was  in  advance  of  it. 
The  general  belief,  a  hundred  years  ago  and  less, 
as  to  the  sphere  of  lovely  woman  found  expres- 
sion in  the  familiar  couplet, 

"  To  eat  strawberries,  sugar  and  cream, 
Sit  on  a  cushion  and  sew  up  a  seam," 

a  belief  which  a  seeker  may  find  still  in  districts 
not  wholly  rural. 

The  following  rules  were  adopted  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  grammar  school  in  New  Haven  in 
1684:  "For  ye  instruction  of  hopeful  youth  In 
ye  Latin  tongue  and  other  learned  languages  soe 
far  as  to  prepare  such  youths  for  ye  Coledge  and 
public  service  of  ye  country  in  Church  and  Com- 
monwealth. .  .  .  And  all  girls  be  excluded  as  Im- 
proper and  inconsistent  with  such  a  Grammer 
Schoole  as  ye  law  enjoins,  &  is  ye  Designe  of  this 
Settlement." 

President  Charles  F.  Thwing,  in  his  volume  en- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  241 

titled  "  A  History  of  Higher  Education  in  Amer- 
ica," makes  the  following  confirmatory  statement, 
"  The  education  of  women  for  two  centuries  had 
relation  to  their  condition  as  wives  and  mothers. 
Their  education  was,  like  that  life,  simple,  prosaic, 
narrow.  The  first  President  Dwight  said,  *  The 
employments  of  the  women  of  New  England  are 
wholly  domestic'  Education,  therefore,  hardly 
extended  beyond  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic. 
In  Boston  girls  were  not  allowed  to  attend  the  pub- 
lic schools  until  the  year  1790,  and  then  their  at- 
tendance was  limited  to  the  months  of  summer. 
Two  years  before,  the  town  of  Northampton  voted 
not  to  be  at  any  expense  for  schooling  girls." 

To  attempt  to  provide  an  advanced  education 
for  young  women  equal  to  that  provided  for  young 
men,  was  looked  upon,  at  first,  as  a  reform  against 
nature,  a  quixotic  dream.  It  was  not  a  question 
of  a  few  fathers  considering  the  wisdom  of  edu- 
cating their  daughters  in  the  highest  branches  of 
human  knowledge,  but  it  was  a  general  question, 
viz.,  whether  any  fathers  should  run  the  risk  of 
^  allowing  their  daughters  to  pursue  the  advanced 
studies  of  the  College  and  the  University,  lest 
they  should  be  unsphered,  if  not  practically  un- 
sexed,  and  so  unfitted  for  woman's  practical  duties 
and  ordained  position  in  life. 

Professor  William  Seymour  Tyler  has  vividly 


242     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

portrayed  the  strange  opposition  to  the  higher 
education  of  women  in  the  following  words: 
*'  The  objections  to  this  idea  of  equalizing  the  ed- 
ucational advantages  of  the  two  sexes  were  many 
and  various,  and  not  always  consistent  with  each 
other  or  consonant  with  the  courtesy  due  to  the 
gentler  sex.  It  was  an  innovation  uncalled  for, 
unheard  of  until  now  since  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  and  unthought  of  now  except  by  a  few 
strong  minded  women  and  radical  men,  who  would 
level  all  distinctions  and  overturn  the  foundations 
of  the  family,  of  society,  of  Church,  and  of  the 
State.  It  was  unnatural,  unphilosophical,  unscrip- 
tural,  unpractical  and  impracticable,  unfeminine 
and  anti-Christian;  in  short  all  the  epithets  in  the 
dictionary  that  begin  with  un  and  in  and  anti 
were  hurled  against  and  heaped  upon  it.  .  .  .  It 
would  be  the  entering  wedge  to  woman's  preach- 
ing, practicing,  lecturing,  voting,  ruling,  buying 
and  selling,  doing  everything  that  men  do,  and  per- 
haps doing  it  better  than  men  do,  and  overstock- 
ing all  the  trades  and  professions.  At  the  same 
time  it  was  insisted  that  such  occupations  as  math- 
ematics and  philosophy  were  not  suited  to  the 
tastes  and  capacities  of  women;  they  did  not  want 
them,  and  would  not  undertake  them;  and  if  they 
did,   they  would   ruin   their  health.   Impair  their 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  243 

gentleness,  delicacy,  modesty  and  refinement,  un- 
sex  them,  and  unfit  them  for  their  proper  sphere." 

Women's  legal  condition  was  defined  by  Black- 
stone  in  his  "  Commentaries  "  in  these  words,  '*  By 
marriage  the  husband  and  wife  are  one  person  in 
law;  that  is,  the  very  being  or  legal  existence  of 
the  woman  is  suspended  during  marriage,  or  at 
least  is  incorporated  and  consolidated  into  that 
of  her  husband." 

The  opinion  of  woman's  subordination  to  man 
prevailed  among  the  most  advanced  thinkers  and 
idealists  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Rousseau  declared  the  object  of  woman  in  crea- 
tion to  be  this,  "  Women  are  specially  made  to 
please  men.  All  their  education  should  be  rela- 
tive to  men.  To  please  them,  to  be  useful  to 
them,  to  make  themselves  loved  and  honored  by 
them,  to  bring  them  up  when  young,  to  take  care 
of  them  when 'grown  up,  to  counsel  and  console 
them,  to  make  their  lives  agreeable  and  pleasant 
—  these,  in  all  ages,  have  been  the  duties  of 
women,  and  it  is  for  these  duties  they  should  be 
educated  from  infancy." 

Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  commenting  on  these  quo- 
tations, says,  "  This  conception  that  woman  was 
made  for  man,  that  in  marriage  she  lost  her  per- 
sonal  identity,   and  became  merged  and  consoli- 


244     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

dated  with  the  man,  entered  into  and  determined 
the  popular  ideal  of  woman's  education." 

If  the  higher  education  of  woman  was  a  reform 
against  nature,  this  was  the  reform,  which  Emma 
Willard  inaugurated,  and  the  splendid  task  to 
which  she  applied  herself,  with  all  the  energy  of 
her  strong  nature  and  all  the  resources  of  her  cul- 
tivated mind.  It  is  universally  conceded  that 
though  other  schools  were  established  soon  after 
hers,  to  her  belongs  the  high  honor  of  being  the 
pioneer. 

The  late  George  William  Curtis  in  his  scholarly 
oration,  delivered  at  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  the  founding  of  Vassar  College,  quotes  Sidney 
Smith  as  saying  "  that  the  immense  disparity 
which  existed  between  the  knowledge  of  men  and 
women  admitted  of  no  rational  defense,  because," 
said  the  sensible  canon,  "  nature  has  been  as 
bountiful  of  understanding  to  one  sex  as  to  the 
other."  "  While  he  was  writing,"  says  Mr.  Cur- 
tis, "  Mrs,  Emma  Willard,  whose  name  should 
always  be  held  in  honor  at  Vassar,  and  at  every 
similar  institution  in  the  world,  was  improving  the 
minds  of  young  ladies  at  a  school  in  Vermont,  and 
a  few  years  afterward  founded  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  the  Troy  Female  Seminary.  This 
was  a  conspicuous  advance  in  the  scope  and  con- 
ception of  such  academies  at  that  day.     But  the 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  245 

time  was  ripe  for  Mrs.  Willard,  as  it  was  for 
Columbus,  and  for  every  leader  of  civilization." 

This  Is  high  praise,  coming  from  such  a  distin- 
guished source,  which  makes  Mrs,  Willard  the 
Columbus  of  the  new  world  of  woman's  oppor- 
tunity and  development.  Four  hundred  years  ago 
the  time  may  have  been  ripe  for  discovery,  discov- 
ery may  have  been  In  the  air,  but  to  Columbus 
alone  belongs  the  honor  of  having  plucked  the 
ripened  fruit,  of  having  sublimated  the  vaporous 
ether  into  a  solid  continent,  which  ought  In  justice 
to  be  called  in  its  entireness  to-day  by  his  euphoni- 
ous name,  instead  of  his  name  being  restricted  to 
the  western  portion  of  the  British  possessions  in 
North  America. 

It  is  no  discredit  to  the  Christian  religion  that 
the  advent  of  its  divine  Founder  took  place  "  in 
the  fullness  of  time,"  that  then  when  prophetic 
voices,  national  conquests  by  Roman  arms,  uni- 
versal unrest  and  desire,  and  the  perfection  of  the 
Greek  tongue  had  put  all  things  In  readiness.  He 
appeared  and  entered  upon  his  sublime  mission  as 
the  Teacher  and  Redeemer  of  the  race.  The 
preparation  of  the  hour  and  the  preparation  and 
appearance  of  the  chosen  instrument  were  both  of 
divine  Providence.  At  the  end  of  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  last  century  the  hour  had  come  for  the 
enlargement    of    woman's    sphere,    for    her    full 


246     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

emancipation  from  the  limitations  which  had  so 
long  encompassed  her,  for  the  clear  assertion  of 
the  rights  and  possibilities  of  womanhood  under 
the  Christian  dispensation,  and  Mrs.  Willard  was, 
under  God,  the  woman  for  the  hour,  illustrating 
in  herself  very  much  of  the  ideal,  which  she  per- 
sistently and  persuasively  held  up  for  her  sisters. 

Descended  directly  from  a  Puritan  ancestry, 
which  had  its  fountain  head  in  this  country  in 
Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  of  Connecticut,  broadened 
in  her  views  and  attainments  by  the  liberal  spirit 
of  her  father,  who  openly  rebelled  against  the 
narrowness  and  oppression,  which  still  lingered  in 
his  day,  we  find  Miss  Emma  Hart  (for  that  was 
her  maiden  name)  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen 
teaching  her  first  school,  and  mistress  of  the  school 
and  of  the  situation,  using  the  rod  or  pulling  the 
teeth  of  her  pupils  as  occasion  required  (though 
probably  not  giving  to  them  the  option  as  ex- 
pressed by  the  child's  request  to  her  mother,  if  she 
could  not  have  her  picture  taken,  might  she  have 
a  tooth  out),  encouraging  them  to  fidelity,  self- 
respect  and  the  love  of  study,  independent  in  her 
methods,  thorough  in  her  work,  exciting  the  ad- 
miration of  the  parents  and  the  ambition  of 
the  children,  and  already  catching  glimpses  of  the 
scope,  and  giving  promise  of  the  success,  of  the 
work  to  which  she  was  to  devote  her  life. 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  247 

Passing  from  the  little  Connecticut  village  to 
the  more  advanced  work  and  larger  opportunities 
of  her  brief  Vermont  experience,  her  success  was 
still  more  marked.  Her  marriage  to  Dr.  Wil- 
lard,  when  she  was  twenty-two  years  of  age, 
seemed  for  the  moment  to  put  an  end  to  her  brief 
career  as  an  educator,  and  to  blight  all  hopes  which 
she  or  her  friends  may  have  cherished  of  enlarged 
usefulness  and  successful  reform  in  this  direction. 
But  soon  financial  reverses  came  to  her  husband, 
and  never  were  misfortunes  more  conspicuously 
overruled  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  great  pur- 
pose, and  the  disappointment  of  one  made  to  issue 
in  the  benefit  of  a  countless  multitude.  Smitten 
to  the  ground,  not  by  dazzling  light,  but  by  exces- 
sive darkness  and  momentary  blindness,  she  asked 
with  devout  and  submissive  spirit,  "  Lord,  what 
wilt  thou  have  me  do?"  Marriage  was  not  to 
her  the  great  end  of  life.  Through  it  she  secured 
the  broader  vision  of  life  and  duty.  There 
flashed  upon  her  mind,  probably  as  never  before, 
the  needs  of  her  own  sex,  the  unjust  disparity 
which  existed  in  the  prevailing  provisions  for  the 
intellectual  culture  of  the  youth  of  her  time,  the 
outline  of  the  reform  demanded,  and  her  call  in 
the  providence  of  God  to  the  leadership  of  the 
new  movement.  She  understood  and  accepted 
the  significance  of  the  hour.     She  "  was  not  dis- 


248     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision."  Life  to  her 
took  on  a  grander  purpose.  She  rose  with  true 
womanly  courage,  and  undertook  cheerfully  and 
resolutely  her  appointed  work  as  the  apostle  of 
the  higher  education  of  woman,  the  broader  cul- 
ture, the  elevation,  the  progress  of  her  sex. 

In  giving  the  chief  place  to  Mrs.  Willard  in 
the  advanced  educational  movement  for  young 
women,  I  do  not  forget  the  preparatory  work  of 
Miss  Zilpah  Grant  at  Ipswich  Seminary,  of  Abi- 
gail Haseltine  at  Bradford  Academy,  of  Miss 
Catherine  Beecher  at  Hartford,  and  of  Eli  Thayer 
of  the  Oread  Collegiate  Institute  at  Worcester; 
nor  do  I  forget  the  noble  work  of  that  other  noble 
Avoman,  Mary  Lyon.  But  Mrs.  Willard  was 
born  ten  years  before  Mary  Lyon,  and  the  Troy 
Seminary  antedated  the  South  Hadley  Seminary 
by  sixteen  years.  Mrs.  Willard  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1787,  and  Miss  Lyon,  February 
28,  1797.  It  should  be  added  that  the  pub- 
lic career  of  Mrs.  Willard  lasted  almost  a  score 
of  years  longer  than  Miss  Lyon's,  and  was  much 
broader  in  its  relations,  although  no  higher  in  its 
purpose. 

It  may  be  well  at  this  point,  now  that  the  names 
of  these  two  educators  have  been  associated  in  our 
thought,  to  quote  President  Thwing's  very  just 
and  discriminating  characterization  of  them,  con- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  249 

tained  in  the  volume  already  referred  to.  "  It  is 
not  a  little  significant  that  near  the  beginning  of 
the  period  of  the  enlargement  of  the  higher  edu- 
cation and  greater  opportunity  for  women,  stood 
two  women  embodying  noble  and  diverse  charac- 
teristics, movements  and  methods.  The  one  em- 
bodied intensity,  and  the  other  largeness.  Mary 
Lyon  stood  for  an  interpretation  of  life  which  is 
still  denominated  Puritanism,  and  Emma  Willard 
for  an  interpretation  optimistic  and  free.  One 
declared  that  to  do  her  duty  was  her  great  pur- 
pose, and  the  other  regarded  freedom  of  develop- 
ment as  her  great  desire  for  humanity  and  herself. 
The  one  interpreted  religion  as  life,  and  the  other 
sought  to  make  life  religious.  One  poured  all  of 
life  into  religion,  and  caused  its  conceptions  and 
principles  to  become  dominant.  The  other  poured 
all  of  religion  into  life,  seeking  to  give  to  life  a 
symmetry  more  complete,  a  nobler  sympathy,  a 
finer  enrichment,  and  a  higher  and  holier  aspira- 
tion." 

President  Thwing  goes  on  to  say,  "  Each  of 
these  two  types  embodies  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages. Each  is  subjected  to  perils.  Intensity 
is  in  peril  of  narrowness;  liberality  and  largeness, 
of  vagueness  and  looseness.  .  .  .  But  both  Miss 
Lyon  and  Mrs.  Willard  were  largely  saved  from 
falling  into  the  evils  and  weaknesses  of  their  re 


250     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

spective  methods.  Each  made  a  noble  contribu- 
tion to  the  education  of  women,  important  in  it- 
self and  for  the  periods  of  their  service,  and  which 
also  bore  the  seeds  of  yet  greater  development." 
While  conducting  her  school  at  Middlebury, 
Vt.,  Mrs.  Willard  projected  the  educational  plans 
which  she  afterward  carried  out  with  such  signal 
ability  and  success.  By  the  character  of  her 
school,  as  well  as  by  the  publication  and  circulation 
of  her  advanced  views  on  woman's  education,  she 
was  already  attracting  to  herself  the  attention  of 
educators,  and  men  prominent  in  business  and 
political  life.  Her  programme,  formulated  with 
great  care  and  minuteness  of  detail,  passed 
through  edition  after  edition,  and  called  forth 
wide  approval  and  criticism.  It  contained  the 
basis  of  her  whole  system  of  education,  and 
by  whatever  name  the  school  contemplated  might 
be  called,  seminary  or  college,  it  was  in  all 
essential  respects  of  college-grade,  and  has  fur- 
nished the  foundation  of  all  distinctive  colleges 
for  young  women.  It  had  in  view  large  public 
buildings,  a  library  well  supplied  with  books  in  all 
branches  of  knowledge,  laboratories,  philosophical 
apparatus,  a  large  staff  of  teachers,  a  board  of 
Trustees,  and  generous  aid  from  the  legislature 
of  the  State.  The  plan  was  too  large,  the  en- 
terprise too  expensive,  to  be  carried  on  by  any  one 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  251 

person  or  by  private  benevolence  —  at  least,  in 
those  days.  It  was  a  great  public  institution 
which  she  contemplated,  and  was  designed  to  con- 
fer incalculable  benefit  upon  society  at  large,  upon 
every  community,  upon  the  State  and  the  Nation, 
and  therefore  would  be  justified  fully  in  making 
its  appeal  to  the  public  treasury. 

By  the  advice  of  influential  friends,  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard  decided  to  make  New  York  State  the  arena 
for  her  new  and  "  lively  experiment."  A  be- 
ginning was  made  at  Waterford,  and  after  two 
years  the  school  was  transferred  to  the  more 
favorable  location  in  the  city  of  Troy,  and  was 
called  "  The  Troy  Female  Seminary."  This  was 
under  the  shadow  of  the  State  capitol,  only  six 
miles  away,  from  which  Mrs.  Wlllard  hoped  to 
receive  practical  sympathy  and  aid,  as  well  as  from 
other  States,  and  even  from  the  national  Govern- 
ment at  Washington.  Then  began  the  strenuous 
work  of  education  and  appeal,  which  she  under- 
took single-handed,  relying  upon  the  obvious  jus- 
tice of  her  cause,  and  its  unquestionable  reasona- 
bleness, to  commend  itself  to  the  favorable  judg- 
ment of  thoughtful,  public-spirited  citizens  of 
every  rank. 

She  prepared  an  able  and  extended  memorial, 
and  secured  Its  presentation  before  legislatures. 
It  attracted  very  wide  attention.     She  solicited 


252     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

personally  the  cooperation  of  legislatures,  of 
members  of  Congress,  and  of  Presidents.  She 
sought  to  create  public  sentiment,  to  overcome  in- 
difference, to  remove  prejudice,  to  kindle  en- 
thusiasm, and  to  secure  private  benefactions  and 
State  patronage.  Hers  was  a  work  of  agitation, 
in  which  reforms  always  begin.  Her  language, 
which  was  certainly  not  wanting  in  force  or  pre- 
cision, indicates  the  nature  of  the  objections  she 
met.  In  a  letter  she  wrote,  "  I  am  gratified  with 
your  sentiments  on  female  education,  and  I  wish 
legislators  thought  as  you  and  I  do.  They  can 
expend  thousands  for  the  education  of  male 
youths,  but  when  was  anything  ever  done  by  the 
public  to  promote  that  of  females?  And  what  is 
the  reason  of  it?  It  is  not  because  the  expense 
is  valued,  nor  because  fathers  do  not  love  their 
daughters  as  well  as  their  sons.  It  is  partly  from 
inattention  to  the  subject,  and  partly  from  the 
prejudice  that  if  women's  minds  were  cultivated 
they  would  forget  their  own  sphere,  and  intrude 
themselves  into  that  of  men,  .  .  .  because  a  few 
individuals  of  masculine  minds  have  forcibly 
broken  through  every  impediment,  and  rivaled  the 
men  even  in  their  own  department.  .  .  .  They 
might  as  well  reason  that  because  there  is  now  and 
then  a  brawny  woman  who  can  lift  a  barrel  of 
cider   (was  that  the  kind  of  exercise  customary 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  253 

among  young  ladies  of  the  olden  time?)  her 
whole  sex  should  be  kept  constantly  within  doors 
and  not  allowed  to  exercise,  less  if  they  should  at- 
tain the  full  perfection  of  their  strength,  they 
would  contest  the  prize  upon  the  wrestling  ground, 
or  attempt  to  take  the  scythe  and  the  hoe  from 
the  hands  of  men,  and  turn  them  into  the  kitchen." 

Again  she  wrote,  "  I  think  the  business  of  edu- 
cation is  not  to  counteract  the  decision  of  nature, 
but  to  perfect  ourselves  in  nature's  plan."  And 
again,  "  Education  should  seek  to  bring  its  sub- 
jects to  the  perfection  of  their  moral,  intellectual 
and  physical  nature,  in  order  that  they  may  be  of 
the  greatest  possible  use  to  themselves  and  others." 
And  once  more,  "  Another  error  is  that  it  has  been 
made  the  first  object  in  educating  our  sex  to  pre- 
pare them  to  please  the  other.  But  reason  and 
religion  teach  that  we  too  are  primary  existences; 
that  it  is  for  us  to  move,  to  the  orbit  of  our  duty, 
around  the  holy  center  of  perfection;  the  com- 
panions, not  the  satellites,  of  men." 

These  are  noble  sentiments,  marked  by  sanity, 
full  of  "  sweetness  and  light,"  and  the  wonder  is 
that  they  did  not  win  their  way  at  once  to  the 
acceptance  of  every  mind.  Mrs.  Willard  scorned 
the  idea  that  the  higher  education  would  unsex 
her  sisters,  or  would  educate  them  away  from  the 
simple,  practical,  homely  duties  of  life.      It  was 


254     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

not  to  unfit  them  for  their  lot,  and  make  them  dis- 
contented with  their  environment;  but  it  was  to 
fit  them  to  dignify  every  duty,  to  give  them  power 
over  their  environment,  to  make  them  better  sis- 
ters, and  wives,  and  mothers,  and  members  of 
the  social  order,  in  a  word,  not  to  change  their 
sphere,  but  to  interpret  it,  and  enlarge  and  en- 
rich it.  What  Margaret  Fuller  claimed  near  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  as  woman's  birthright, 
viz.,  "  the  freedom,  the  religious  and  intelligent 
freedom  of  the  universe,  to  use  its  means,  to  learn 
its  secrets,  as  far  as  nature  has  enabled  her,"  Mrs. 
Willard  claimed  in  its  second  decade  with  equal 
earnestness  and  comprehensiveness  of  view, 
when  the  distinguished  transcendentalist  was  but 
a  child. 

The  opposition  to  her  reform  sometimes  dis- 
appointed Mrs.  Willard,  and  sometimes  aroused 
her  righteous  indignation;  but  never  chilled  the 
ardor  of  her  purpose,  or  paralyzed  the  persist- 
ency of  her  effort.  Men  from  whom  she  expected 
better  things,  withheld  their  sympathy,  and  legis- 
latures their  patronage  and  support;  but  her  spirit 
was  undaunted,  and  her  efforts  were  at  last 
crowned  with  a  splendid  and  far  reaching  success. 
The  new  location  proved  to  be  most  favorable. 
To  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic  citizens  of  Troy 
belongs  the  distinguishing  honor  of  having  cor- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  255 

dially  welcomed  the  experiment,  and  of  having 
furnished  the  opportunity  and  the  means  for  the 
establishment  of  a  Seminary  for  the  higher  edu- 
cation of  young  women,  which  became  at  the  same 
time  a  model  and  an  inspiration,  and  in  that  city 
Mrs.  Willard  was  enabled  to  furnish  an  illustra- 
tion of  her  plan,  approximating  at  least  her  lofty 
ideal. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  Mrs.  Willard  with  all 
her  peculiar  pride  of  sex  and  desire  to  elevate 
women  was  far  from  being  in  sympathy  with  those 
women  who  early  began  the  agitation  of  those 
intricate  questions  which  pertain  to  '  women's 
rights,'  by  which  is  usually  meant  '  political 
rights.'  "  A  brief  extract  from  her  reply  to  Miss 
Catherine  Beecher,  who  had  appealed  to  her  to 
join  certain  ladies  in  Hartford  in  an  organized 
movement  to  secure  the  "  rights  "  of  women,  will 
indicate  her  views. 

"Dear  Madam:  Sincerely  do  I  regret  that 
in  the  present  instance  of  an  appeal  to  act  jointly 
with  yourself  and  the  highly  respected  ladies  of 
Hartford,  the  case  should  be  one  in  which  my 
own  opinion  is  not  coincident  with  yours  and 
theirs.  In  reflecting  on  political  subjects  my 
thoughts  are  apt  to  take  this  direction;  the  only 
natural  government  on  earth  is  that  of  the  fam- 


256     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

ily,  the  only  natural  sovereign,  the  husband  and 
father.  Other  just  governments  are  these  sov- 
ereigns confederated,  that  they  may  together  the 
better  secure  the  advantage  of  all  their  families 
combined." 

As  showing  Mrs.  Willard's  native  brightness 
and  wit,  which  can  co-exist  with  the  most  serious 
purpose  of  a  strenuous  life,  a  letter  to  a  cousin 
accompanying  a  wedding  present  of  a  pair  of 
stockings,  may  be  quoted. 

"  To  J.  D.  Willard,  Esq. 

Dear  Cousin,  Herewith  you  will  receive  a 
present  of  a  pair  of  woollen  stockings,  knit  by  my 
own  hands,  and  be  assured,  dear  Coz,  that  my 
friendship  for  you  is  as  warm  as  the  material, 
active  as  the  finger-work,  and  generous  as  the 
donation.  But  I  consider  this  present  as  pecul- 
iarly appropriate  on  the  occasion  of  your  mar- 
riage. You  will  remark,  firstly,  that  here  are  two 
individuals  united  In  one  pair,  who  are  to  walk 
side  by  side,  guarding  against  coldness,  and  giv- 
ing comfort  as  long  as  they  last.  The  thread  of 
their  texture  Is  mixed,  and  so,  alas,  Is  the  thread 
of  life.  In  these,  however,  the  white  is  made 
to  predominate,  expressing  my  desire  and  confi- 
dence that  thus  it  may  be  with  the  color  of  your 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  257 

lives.  Xo  black  is  used,  for  1  believe  your  lives 
will  be  wholly  free  from  the  black  passions  of 
wrath  and  jealousy.  The  darkest  color  here  is 
blue,  which  is  excellent,  when  we  do  not  make  it 
too  blue. 

Other  appropriate  thoughts  rise  to  my  mind  in 
regarding  these  stockings.  The  most  indifferent 
subjects,  when  viewed  by  a  mind  in  a  suitable 
frame,  may  furnish  instructive  inferences,  as  saith 
the  poet  — 

"The  iron  dogs,  the  peat  and  tongs, 
The  bellows  that  have  leathern  lungs. 
The  fire,  wood  ashes,  and  the  smoke. 
Do  all  to  righteousness  provoke." 

But  to  the  subject.  You  will  perceive  that  the 
tops  of  these  stockings  (by  which  I  suppose  court- 
ship to  be  represented)  are  seamed,  and  by  means 
of  seaming  are  drawn  into  a  pucker.  But  after- 
wards comes  a  time  when  the  whole  is  made  plain, 
and  continues  so  to  the  end  and  final  toeing  off. 
By  this  I  wish  you  to  take  occasion  to  congratu- 
late yourself  that  you  have  now  come  to  plain 
sailing. 

Again  as  the  whole  of  these  comely  stockings 
was  not  made  at  once,  but  by  the  addition  of  one 
little  stitch  after  another,  put  in  with  skill  and 
discretion,  until  the  whole  presents  the  fair  and 
equal  piece  of  work  which  you  see,  so  life  does  not 


258     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

consist  of  one  great  action,  but  millions  of  little 
ones  combined,  and  so  may  it  be  with  your  lives, 
no  stitch  dropped  when  duties  are  to  be  done,  no 
widenlngs  made  when  bad  principles  are  to  be  re- 
proved, or  economy  is  to  be  preserved,  neither 
seaming  nor  narrowing  when  truth  and  gener- 
osity are  in  question;  thus  every  stitch  of  life 
made  right  and  set  In  the  right  place,  neither  too 
large  or  too  small,  too  tight  or  too  loose  —  thus 
may  you  keep  on  your  smooth  and  even  course, 
making  existence  one  fair  and  consistent  piece,  un- 
til having  both  passed  the  heel,  you  come  to  the 
very  toe  of  life,  and  here,  in  the  .final  narrowing 
off,  and  dropping  the  coil  of  this  emblematical 
pair  of  warm  companions,  of  comforting  associ- 
ates, nothing  appears  but  white,  the  token  of  inno- 
cence and  peace,  of  purity  and  light;  and  may  you, 
like  these  stockings,  the  final  stitch  being  dropped 
and  the  work  completed,  go  together  from  the 
place  where  you  were  formed,  to  a  happier  state 
of  existence  —  a  present  from  earth  to  heaven. 
Hoping  these  stockings  and  admonitions  may 
meet  a  cordial  reception,  I  remain,  In  true  blue 
friendship,  seemly,  yet  without  seeming,  yours 
from  top  to  toe, 

Emma  Wlllard." 

Mrs.  Wlllard's  husband  died  in  May,    1825, 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  259 

four  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  school. 
He  was  twenty-eight  years  older  than  she,  and 
had  been  her  helper  in  many  ways,  relieving  her 
of  the  financial  management  of  the  school,  being 
a  wise  counselor  in  all  her  perplexities,  and  filling 
the  place  of  resident  physician.  From  that  time 
on,  for  twenty  years  until  her  retirement  from  the 
principalship,  the  entire  management  of  the  rap- 
idly growing  school  rested  upon  her  shoulders. 

It  is  not  within  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to 
sketch  Mrs.  Willard's  activity  and  usefulness  in 
many  directions,  as  the  author  of  numerous  val- 
uable text  books  and  other  literature,  as  a  poet  of 
recognized  ability,  as  an  active  friend  of  philan- 
thropy at  home  and  abroad,  as  a  leader  in  social 
and  literary  circles  burdened  with  a  large  cor- 
respondence, as  the  discoverer  and  advocate  of  a 
new  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  which 
attracted  at  the  time  much  attention,  as  the  earnest 
supporter  of  every  good  cause,  educational  and 
patriotic,  which  had  in  view  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge, the  elevation  of  society,  the  progress  of  the 
State  and  the  Nation,  and  the  welfare  of  humanity. 
All  these  numerous  and  exacting  activities,  which 
were  continued  until  her  death  in  1870  at  the  age 
of  83,  and  which  made  her,  as  another  has  said, 
"  the  representative  woman  of  her  generation," 
together  with  details  of  her  unfortunate  second 


26o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

marriage,  which  cast  the  shadow  of  a  great  dis- 
appointment upon  her  middle  life,  all  these  will 
'be  found  narrated  in  her  complete  biography. 
Her  peculiar  glory  was  the  service  she  rendered 
to  the  education  of  her  sex,  in  securing  for  it  a 
more  general  recognition  of  its  importance  and  a 
wider  scope  in  its  essential  character.  This  serv- 
ice made  her  a  benefactor  worthy  of  special  honor 
among  all  who  believe  in  the  value  of  education, 
and  in  the  equal  rights  of  all  to  its  inestimable 
advantages. 

To  Mrs.  Willard's  school  were  gathered  pupils 
from  far  and  near,  many  coming  from  the  South, 
and  from  it  she  sent  forth  six  thousand  educated 
young  women  into  the  homes  of  our  land,  with 
such  measure  of  education  as  they  were  able  in- 
dividually to  take  on  (or  rather  to  take  in,  for  edu- 
cation is  not  an  external  matter),  of  whom  five 
hundred  became  teachers,  who  caught  something 
of  her  spirit,  and  labored  to  carry  out  her  purpose. 
It  was  not  for  her  school  alone  that  she  labored 
and  pleaded,  but  for  the  establishment  of  similar 
schools  everywhere.  Her  thoughts  were  as  broad 
as  womanhood,  and  embraced  her  entire  sex. 
She  endeavored  to  show  in  Troy  what  could  be 
done,  what  ought  to  be  done,  and  what  must  be 
done   for  the  education  of  woman,   if  she  is  to 


MRS.  EiMMA  WILLARD  261 

reach  the  summit  of  her  development  and  useful- 
ness, the  divine  goal  of  her  womanhood. 

Other  influences  have,  of  course,  been  at  work, 
and  other  hands  have  been  busy,  but  in  the  rapid 
progress  and  the  large  fruitage  of  these  later 
years,  it  is  only  just  to  recognize  the  influence  and 
the  hand  of  the  founder  of  the  Troy  Seminary. 
From  this  fountain  have  flowed  streams,  which 
have  fertilized  the  soil  out  of  which  Vassar, 
Wellesley,  Mount  Holyoke,  Smith,  Bryn  Mawr, 
Radclifte,  Barnard,  and  other  distinctive  schools 
for  young  women  have  sprung  blossomed-crowned 
into  life,  and  from  those  eloquent  walls  on  the 
banks  of  the  upper  Hudson  has  gone  forth  the 
authoritative  mandate  that  has  already  opened 
the  doors  of  many  of  our  colleges  to  both  sexes, 
upon  equal  terms  and  with  equal  privileges. 

Mount  Holyoke  Seminary  was  founded  in  1837, 
and  changed  its  name  to  College  in  1888,  Vassar 
College  in  1861,  Girton,  the  first  English  College, 
in  1870,  Smith  College  in  1871,  Wellesley  in  1875, 
Radcliffe  in  1879,  Bryn  Mawr  in  1880,  the  Col- 
lege for  Women  in  Western  Reserve  University 
in  1888,  the  Women's  College  in  Brown  Univer- 
sity, 1 89 1,*  and  Barnard  in  1900.     It  should  be 

*  An  early  friend  of  the  higher  education  of  women  in  Rhode 
Island  was  John  Kingsbury,  LL.D.  He  was  a  Trustee  and 
Fellow  of  Brown  University  from  1844  to  1874,  the  date  of  his 
death,  and  Secretary  of  the  Corporation  fronn  1853  until  he  died. 


262     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

remembered  that  an  historic  beginning  in  the  di- 
rection of  female  education  was  made  in  Ohio  in 
Oberlin  Institute,  as  Oberlin  College  was  first 
called,  which  was  chartered  in  1834.  The  his- 
torian says,  however,  that  "  the  method  of  giving 
a  College  education  to  women  and  men  together 
was  not  a  primary  thought.  The  primary  thought 
was  to  give  an  education  to  women  of  the  sort 
which  they  were  fitted  to  receive.  The  condi- 
tions necessitated  the  giving  of  the  education  to 
both  men  and  women  upon  equal  terms."  At 
the  commencement  in  1841  three  women  received 

In  1828  he  founded  in  Providence  a  school  which  he  called  a 
"  Young  Ladies'  High  School,"  a  term  not  yet  emplo3'ed  in  our 
system  of  public  education,  and  which  was  a  marked  advance 
on  anything  provided  for  young  women  at  that  time.  It  was  a 
private  school,  and  probably  attracted  few  pupils  outside  of 
Providence  and  its  immediate  vicinit3\  In  it  was  offered  in- 
struction in  history,  advanced  mathematics,  and  the  ancient  as 
well  as  modern  languages.  The  movement  called  out  not  a  little 
ridicule  at  the  beginning,  the  boys  on  the  street,  as  Mr.  Kings- 
bury passed  by,  shouting  in  derision,  "  There  goes  the  man  who 
is  teaching  the  girls  Latin."  The  school  room  was  furnished  with 
a  carpet  and  cloth-covered  desks,  and  chairs  in  keeping  with  the 
other  furnishings.  Not  a  few  citizens  regarded  the  expenditure 
as  mone}^  wasted.  It  attracted  much  attention  and  visitors  from 
abroad  on  account  of  its  novelty.  Dr.  Kingsburj'  conducted  the 
school  with  notable  success  for  thirty  years.  It  was  subsequently 
under  the  care  of  Professor  John  L.  Lincoln  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity, and  later  of  Rev.  Dr.  John  C.  Stockbridge,  much  of  the  in- 
struction being  given  by  Professors  of  the  University.  The  school 
was  continued  until  1877.  The  name  was  changed  by  Prof. 
Lincoln  to  "  Young  Ladies'  School,"  the  term  "  High "  having 
been  adopted  to  designate  a  public  school  grade.  It  was  the 
precursor  of  the  Women's  College  in  Brown  University. 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  263 

degrees,  the  first  women,  it  is  said,  to  receive  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  in  Arts  in  the  United  States. 

Professor  Wiinsterberg  says,  "  To-day  there  is 
no  need  of  defending  the  claims  of  women;  the 
women  themselves  have  declared  with  pride  that 
the  battle  is  now  won.  We  no  longer  hear  the 
old-fashioned  pitiful  arguments  that  the  women 
have  too  small  a  brain  for  study,  or  that  their 
health  breaks  down  if  they  go  through  a  college 
course,  or  that  they  lose  charm  and  become  un- 
womanly if  their  education  goes  beyond  the  finish- 
ing school,  or  that  they  are  bad  housekeepers  and 
selfish  mothers  if  they  have  too  much  intellectual 
training.  All  these  exaggerations  which  belonged 
to  a  period  of  transition  have  melted  away.  The 
social  prejudices  have  disappeared,  and  any  one 
who  should  argue  to-day  against  the  principle  of 
college  education  for  women  would  appear  a  relic 
of  by-gone  times." 

The  education  of  seventy-five  years  ago  was  not 
the  education  of  to-day.  The  progress  has  been 
remarkable.  It  has  been  more  than  an  evolution; 
it  has  been  a  revolution.  Mr.  Weise,  in  his 
"  History  of  Troy,"  says  that  Mrs.  Willard's 
school  "  had  not  at  the  time  of  its  establishment 
its  equal  in  the  United  States,"  that  is,  for  the 
education  of  young  women,  and  that  she  was  "  the 
first  woman  in  America  to  place  the  standard  of 


264     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

female  education  upon  the  same  plane  of  study 
which  was  then  pursued  by  young  men  in  the 
various  colleges  and  higher  academies  in  the 
land."  And  her  biographer,  Dr.  John  Lord,  tells 
us  that,  at  first,  Mrs.  Willard  was  compelled  to 
create  her  own  text-books  in  certain  branches  of 
study,  which  possessed  such  excellence  that  they 
were  widely  used,  and  passed  through  many  edi- 
tions. But  the  scope  of  education  is  far  greater 
now  than  was  possible  then.  The  frontiers  of 
human  knowledge  have  been  pushed  farther  and 
farther  back.  New  sciences  have  been  discovered, 
and  old  ones  have  been  greatly  modified  and  ex- 
tended. New  studies  have  been  introduced,  and 
better  methods  and  improved  apparatus.  The 
curriculum  has  been  reconstructed  and  enlarged 
many  times,  and  the  standard  has  been  immensely 
elevated.  Colleges  that  were  only  colleges  In 
name  are  now  such  in  fact,  and  a  few  are  prop- 
erly called  Universities,  probably  as  many  as  will 
be  necessary  to  meet  the  demand  for  years  to  come. 
In  nothing  probably  within  the  memory  of  living 
men  and  women  have  there  been  changes  so  great, 
improvements  so  marked,  advances  so  noteworthy, 
as  in  the  matter  of  education.  In  saying  this  it 
is  not  necessarily  implied  that  all  changes  that 
have  been  introduced  in  our  educational  system 
and  methods,  have  been  in  the  direction  of  gen- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  265 

nine  and  unquestioned  improvement.  There  must 
be  some  just  reason  for  doubt  and  criticism,  when 
so  thoughtful  and  sane  an  educator  as  Dean  Briggs 
of  Cambridge  is  prompted  to  invent  and  give  pub- 
Hcity  to  the  phrase  "  old  fashioned  doubts  con- 
cerning new  fashioned  education." 

It  should  be  remembered  also  that  progress  In 
knowledge  in  these  recent  years,  of  which  we  make 
our  boast,  has  been  largely  confined  to  the  natural 
or  physical  sciences,  to  the  discovery  and  utiliza- 
tion of  the  facts  and  forces  of  nature,  to  inven- 
tion and  the  increased  comfort  of  living.  The 
standards  of  art,  architecture,  literature,  philos- 
ophy and  religion  are  all  in  the  past,  and  all 
students  of  these  branches  of  knowledge  are  com- 
pelled still  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  old  masters. 

But  in  all  this  actual  progress,  these  vaster  re- 
sources, these  multiplied  facilities,  Mrs.  Willard's 
Ideal  has  not  been  outgrown,  nor  can  It  be  ever 
outgrown.  It  was,  to  use  her  words,  "  the  per- 
fection of  the  moral  and  intellectual  nature  of 
woman."  It  was  not  the  mere  accumulation  of 
knowledge,  but  It  was  the  effect  which  all  good 
learning  should  have  upon  the  discipline,  the 
growth,  the  expansion,  the  moral  elevation  of  the 
mind  Itself.  To  the  realization  of  this  lofty  ideal 
all  knowledge  known  and  to  be  known,  all  fresh 
discoveries  In   science,   all  progress  In  education 


266     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

by  the  increase  of  its  contents  or  the  improvement 
of  its  methods  were  to  be  made  to  contribute. 
Mrs.  Willard  looked  upon  education  not  as  an 
end,  but  as  a  means,  and  all  enlargement  of  the 
means  would  have  the  same  sublime,  spiritual  end 
in  view. 

Professor  Henry  Fowler  in  an  article  on  "  The 
Educational  Services  of  Mrs.  Willard,"  published 
in  the  American  Journal  of  Education  in  1859, 
said  very  justly — "She  is  preeminently  a  repre- 
sentative woman,  who  suitably  typefies  the  great 
movement  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  woman.  Her  life  has  been  consecrated 
to  the  education  and  advancement  of  her  sex,  or 
rather  we  might  say  that  the  Christian  elevation 
of  woman  has  been  the  life  itself."  Mrs,  Wil- 
lard, therefore,  seems  to  have  been  a  pioneer  not 
only  in  her  efforts  for  the  higher  education  of  her 
sex,  but  in  her  views  of  the  true  aim  of  all  educa- 
tion, 

Ex-Chancellor  E.  Benjamin  Andrews,  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  in  an  article  published 
a  few  years  since  in  an  Educational  Review,  de- 
clared that  a  change  is  now  taking  place  in  the 
conception  of  the  nature  and  aims  of  true  educa- 
tion. The  old  encyclopaedic  idea  which  made  it 
little  more  than  the  mere  amassing  of  knowledge, 
is  passing  away.     The  aim  which  is  now  coming 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  267 

to  be  accepted,  he  defined  as  fourfold,  viz.,  first, 
"  character,"  secondly,  "  culture,"  that  is,  refine- 
ment, a  love  for  the  beautiful  in  art,  nature,  litera- 
ture and  conduct,  thirdly,  "  critical  power,"  and 
fourthly,  "  ability  to  work  by  rule,"  in  other  words, 
to  bring  things  to  pass;  but  character  first.  Edu- 
cation according  to  this  definition  is  the  cultivation 
and  development  of  one's  intellectual  and  moral 
powers,  refinement  of  soul,  an  increased  relish,  in 
Edmund  Burke's  phrase,  for  "  the  true,  the  beau- 
tiful and  the  good,"  self-control,  self-mastery  for 
worthy  ends,  the  concentration  of  life  and  its 
forces  for  the  attainment  of  noble  objects  and 
lofty  ideals.  Dr.  Andrews  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  "  All  reflecting  persons  are  coming  to  feel 
that  unless  schooling  makes  pupils  morally  better, 
purer  and  sweeter,  kinder  and  stronger  in  out- 
ward conduct,  it  is  unworthy  the  name." 

I  refer  thus  at  length  to  Dr.  Andrews'  article 
in  order  to  say  that  where  leading  educators  are 
now  coming  to  stand,  Mrs.  Willard  stood  clearly 
and  strongly  seventy-five  years  ago.  Let  me  re- 
call her  words.  "  Education  should  seek  to  bring 
its  subjects  to  the  perfection  of  their  moral,  in- 
tellectual and  physical  nature  in  order  that  they 
may  be  of  the  greatest  possible  use  to  themselves 
and  others,"  a  comprehensive  and  wholly  admir- 
able definition,  upon  which  it  would  be  difBcult  to 


268     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

improve,  and  which  is  worthy  to  be  inscribed  in 
letters  of  gold  over  the  entrance  of  every  seminary 
and  college  in  the  land. 

Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  an  early  graduate  of 
Vassar  College,  and  the  first  female  student  in 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  who 
became  an  eminent  teacher  in  the  Institute  and 
an  active  promoter  of  the  higher  education  of  her 
sex,  adopted  in  her  College  course  as  a  sacred  rule 
of  life,  "  I  must  keep  the  body  in  good  condition 
to  do  the  bidding  of  the  spirit." 

Mrs.  Willard  in  her  broad  plan  for  the  perfec- 
tion of  her  sex,  did  not  overlook  the  physical  needs, 
though  she  had  few  or  none  of  the  artificial  helps 
found  in  the  schools  of  to-day.  A  recent  writer 
on  physical  training  for  women  says,  "  In  many 
respects  the  gymnasium  of  a  girls'  college  is  equal 
to  that  of  any  other  college.  The  girl  students 
have  their  boat  clubs  and  regattas,  into  which  they 
enter  with  as  much  spirit  as  if  the  scene  were  New 
London,  and  the  event  the  '  varsity  '  race.  While 
the  girl  students  built  up  brain  cells  by  study,  they 
also  gain  muscle  by  exercise,  and  the  girl  college 
graduate  of  the  present  day  can  put  up  a  dumb  bell 
as  neatly  and  proficiently  as  she  can  analyze  the 
teachings  of  Kant  or  Schlegel.  In  fact  she  does 
the  one  all  the  better  for  having  done  the  other. 
In  addition,  the  game  of  tennis  has  served  to  de- 


MRS.  EiMMA  WILLARD  269 

vclop  broader  chests  and  stronger  muscles.  The 
bicycle  and  tricycle  have  won  many  young  women 
Into  knowing  the  delights  of  a  healthy  spin  along 
country  roads.  There  is  much  reason  for  satis- 
faction In  this  increase  of  health  and  vigor  in 
womankind,  all  the  more  so  as  too  many  young 
men  of  the  present  day  have  not  shown  the  same 
eagerness  toward  physical  development.  It  Is  to 
he  hoped  that  the  narrow  chested,  thin,  cigarette- 
smoking  young  man  who  is  too  often  seen  on  the 
city  streets,  may  be  shamed  into  athletic  training 
by  his  sense  of  physical  inferiority,  when  com- 
pared with  the  girls  of  to-day,  who  can  walk  two 
miles  to  his  one,  and  who  show  in  every  move- 
ment the  perfect  health  which  he  lacks." 

This  position  of  Mrs.  Willard,  which  laid 
proper  emphasis  upon  provisions  for  securing 
soundness  of  body,  has  been  endorsed  by  all  later 
friends  of  female  education,  and  in  no  colleges  do 
we  find  better  equipped  gymnasiums,  and  better 
average  health,  and  more  buoyant  spirits  than  In 
the  colleges  for  young  women.  This  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard believed  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  second  Item  in  her  comprehensive 
scheme,  viz.,  the  training  of  the  Intellectual  to  the 
highest  point  of  development  and  culture.  And 
then  above  all,  she  insisted  that  the  moral  nature, 
which  Is  the  highest  element  In  personality,  should 


270     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

be  brought  under  such  enlightenment  and  disci- 
pline as  to  bring  it  more  and  more  into  harmony 
with  the  laws  of  right-being  and  right-living,  and 
the  known  will  of  the  Maker  of  us  all. 

But  even  this  was  not,  in  Mrs.  Willard's  plan, 
the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  higher  education. 
But  the  whole  nature,  thus  disciplined  and  per- 
fected, was  to  become  a  tempered  and  polished 
instrument  for  "  the  greatest  possible  uses  "  to 
humanity.  Long  years  before  the  word  "  altru- 
ism "  was  invented,  Mrs.  Willard  was  an  altruist 
of  the  purest  type.  No  harp,  however  complete 
and  exquisite  its  workmanship,  performs  its  mis- 
sion until  it  gladdens  and  inspires  human  souls 
with  the  melody  of  its  music.  No  human  mind, 
however  well-trained  and  furnished,  fulfills  the 
high  and  holy  purpose  of  its  being  and  its  train- 
ing, until  it  takes  its  place  among  the  active  forces 
of  life  for  the  comfort,  the  help,  the  uplifting  of 
humanity.  The  angels  of  the  Christian  faith, 
resplendent  with  supernatural  light  and  beauty, 
are  represented  as  messengers  of  God,  "  minister- 
ing spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them  who  shall 
be  heirs  of  salvation."  The  more  exalted  the  life 
of  woman  can  be  made,  the  more  angelic  will  be 
her  ministry  on  the  earth.  Mrs.  Willard  dis- 
tinctly recognized  and  suitably  emphasized  the 
moral  and  religious  element  in  a  complete  educa- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  271 

tion.  She  persistently  excluded  all  sectarianism 
from  her  Seminary;  but  she  made  it  a  Christian 
school,  pervaded  by  a  Christian  atmosphere,  in 
which  the  Christian  faith  was  held  up  as  the  in- 
spiration to  all  noble  living,  and  the  Christian 
graces  as  the  perfection  of  all  highest  character. 

All  knowledge,  rightly  apprehended,  centers  in 
God.  History  is  but  the  record  of  God's  deal- 
ings with  the  human  race  in  its  progressive  devel- 
opment. Literature  is  but  the  expression  of 
thought  and  life  as  it  is  lived  in  harmony  with  or 
apart  from  God.  Philosophy  is  "  the  knowledge 
of  phenomena  as  explained  by,  or  resolved  into, 
causes  and  reasons,  powers  and  laws,"  all  of 
which  are  traceable  to  the  great  First  Cause. 
Science  is  the  systematic  and  orderly  arrangement 
of  facts  and  principles,  in  the  realms  of  matter  and 
force  and  mind,  which  discloses  the  results  of 
God's  operations  or  methods  of  his  activity.  The 
true  scientist  is,  as  has  been  beautifully  said,  sim- 
ply "  thinking  God's  thoughts  after  Him."  Ex- 
President  Eliot  has  strikingly  defined  the  true  pur- 
pose of  scientific  education  in  these  words:  "I 
have  never  been  able  to  find  any  better  answer  to 
the  question,  What  is  the  chief  end  of  studying 
nature?  than  the  answer  which  the  Westminster 
Catechism  gives  to  the  question,  What  is  the  chief 
end  of  man?  namely,  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy 


272     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

Him  forever."  Knowledge  and  wisdom  ought  to 
be  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  would  be,  were  it 
not  for  the  perversity  of  human  hearts,  so  that 
knowledge  has  come  to  mean  the  accumulation  of 
facts,  and  wisdom  the  right  use  of  them.  As 
Cowper  says, 

"  Knowledge  and  wisdom  far  from  being  one, 
Have  ofttimes  no  connection.     Knowledge  dwells 
In  heads  replete  with  thoughts  of  other  men, 
Wisdom  in  minds  attentive  to  their  own. 
Knowledge,  a  rude,  unprofitable  mass, 
The  mere  material  with  which  wisdom  builds, 
Till  smoothed  and  squared  and  fitted  to  its  place, 
Does  but  encumber  whom  it  seems  to  enrich. 
Knowledge  is  proud  that  it  has  learned  so  much; 
Wisdom  is  humble  that  it  knows  no  more." 

He  who  finds  knowledge,  then,  finds  facts  about 
God,  the  Infinite  Spirit,  the  essential  Life,  by 
whom  all  things  consist.  He  who  finds  wisdom 
finds  God.  The  man  who  by  common  consent  is 
denominated  ''  the  wise  man,"  affirmed,  "  The 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom."  In 
the  broadest  sense,  Christ  who  was  the  Word,  the 
utterance  of  God,  the  manifestation  of  his  wis- 
dom as  well  as  his  power  and  love,  could  say,  "  I 
am  the  truth."  Kaulbach,  in  his  famous  cartoon 
of  the  Reformation,  grouped  all  the  intellectual 
activity  of  the  seventeenth  century  around  Luther 
and  the  open  Bible,  the  sun  which,  unveiled,  il- 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  273 

luminated  the  mind,  and  quickened  it  Into  life,  and 
at  the  same  time  was  the  center  around  which  all 
good  learning  revolved,  and  toward  which  it  grav- 
itated. 

Christianity,  which  is  the  synonym  of  light  and 
wisdom;  which  has  been  the  mother  of  schools 
as  well  as  of  churches;  which  has  founded  colleges 
and  universities;  which  has  stimulated  thought  and 
inquiry;  which  has  pushed  on  investigation  and 
discovery;  which  has  given  birth  to  scholars  and 
libraries  and  literatures;  which  has  insisted  that 
all  history  and  all  realms  of  truth  and  all  worlds 
of  matter  are  the  legitimate  field  of  man's  explora- 
tions; which  has  taught  that  wisdom  is  the  her- 
itage of  the  people,  that  the  right  to  know  is  the 
inalienable  right  of  every  man  and  every  woman, 
and  that  knowledge  should  be  as  free  as  the  light 
and  the  air,  and  is  as  essential  to  man's  normal 
and  healthy  development,  bases  its  primary  argu- 
ment for  education  upon  the  nature  and  immortal- 
ity of  the  soul  itself.  Its  capacity  for  growth  is 
one  of  the  strongest  scientific  evidences  for  the 
soul's  immortality,  and  its  immortality  is  one  of  the 
strongest  arguments  for  its  highest  present  edu- 
cation. The  folly  of  education  upon  any  low,  un- 
spiritual,  materialistic  conception  of  man  is  finely 
expressed  by  Tennyson  in  the  familiar  words, 


274     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

"We  are  not  cunning  casts  of  clay, 
Let  science  prove  we  are,  and  then 
What  matters  science  unto  men, 
At  least  to  me ;  I  will  not  stay, 
For  I  was  made  for  better  things." 

The  effect  of  present  wise  training  will  endure 
throughout  eternity.  Mental  development  and 
enlargement,  the  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  powers,  personal  growth  in  this  life,  fit  the 
mind  inevitably  for  a  higher  destiny  in  the  life  to 
come.  We  may  well  shrink  from  going  through 
this  life  and  out  into  eternity  with  dwarfed  or 
stunted  powers,  and  be  eager  to  know  and  to  grow 
until  the  germ  of  manhood  and  womanhood  within 
us  shall  expand  into  the  large  ideal  and  perfect 
type,  which  is  held  up  before  us  by  the  great 
Teacher.  Religion  reveals  to  us  the  sublime 
thought  of  God  with  reference  to  us,  and  the  sub- 
lime possibilities  of  development  that  are  shut  up 
in  every  human  spirit. 

How  narrow  and  belittling,  then,  is  that  theory 
of  education,  which  is  sometimes  called  the  utili- 
tarian, which  limits  itself  to  practical  studies,  that 
can  be  converted  into  silver  and  gold,  and  bread 
and  butter,  to  the  useful  branches  of  knowledge 
as  they  are  called,  and  overlooks  the  immortal 
mind  and  its  discipline  and  progress,  and  puts  a 
higher  value  upon  material  prosperity  than  it  does 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  275 

upon  developed  manhood  and  womanhood  1  You 
all  recall  good  Bishop  Bienvenu,  that  ideal  por- 
traiture of  saint  and  philosopher  combined,  drawn 
by  Victor  Hugo  in  "  Les  Miserables."  He  denied 
himself  of  every  unnecessary  comfort,  and  shared 
the  hardships  and  poverty  of  his  flock.  The  only 
luxury  he  would  tolerate  was  his  garden.  This 
he  kept  in  exquisite  order.  His  haughty  house- 
keeper reproved  him,  saying,  "  You  who  turn 
everything  to  account  have  at  least  one  useless 
spot.  It  would  be  better  to  grow  salads  there 
than  bouquets."  "  Madam,"  retorted  the  good 
Bishop,  "  you  are  mistaken.  The  beautiful  is  as 
useful  as  the  useful,"  and  after  a  pause  he  added, 
"  More  so,  perhaps." 

And  how  narrow  is  that  view  of  education 
which  sometimes  obtained  in  the  past,  which  said 
education  is  for  the  few  and  not  for  all,  as  if  all 
souls  were  not  equally  immortal,  and  were  not 
possessed  of  equal  needs,  and  endowed  with  like 
possibilities!  And  how  narrow  and  indefensible 
would  be  any  theory  of  education  which  made  a 
distinction  in  sex,  and  provided  a  more  abundant 
and  extended  course  of  Instruction  for  boys  than 
for  girls,  as  if  all  minds  were  not  of  equal  value 
and  duration,  and  as  if  the  progress  of  the  human 
race  was  not,  under  God,  more  dependent  upon 
the  broad  intelligence,   the  high  refinement,  the 


276     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

generous  culture  of  woman  than  upon  any  other 
one  thhig  conceivable. 

President  Dwight,  in  an  article  in  the  Forum, 
has  well  said,  "  So  long  as  education  is  conceived 
of  as  valuable  merely  for  its  uses,  or  as  desirable 
simply  as  fitting  a  person  for  his  individual  and 
peculiar  work,  the  higher  education  of  women  may 
find  many  to  oppose  it  with  objections  which  may 
have,  perchance,  seeming  reasonableness.  .  .  . 
But  if  education  is  for  the  growth  of  the  human 
mind,  the  personal  human  mind,  and  if  the  glory 
of  it  is  in  the  upbuilding  and  outbuilding  of  the 
mind,  the  womanly  mind  is  just  as  important,  just 
as  beautiful,  just  as  much  a  divine  creation,  with 
wide-reaching  possibilities,  as  is  the  manly  mind." 

There  are  two  views  of  education,  or  perhaps 
I  should  say,  two  opposite  tendencies,  not  alto- 
gether unknown  in  our  day,  that  are  equally  erro- 
neous and  indefensible.  First,  a  thoroughly  self- 
ish view  that  exhausts  the  benefits  of  education 
upon  one's  self,  that  leads  to  a  life  of  exclusiveness 
and  separation,  that  disconnects  a  man  from  poli- 
tics and  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  a  woman 
from  the  plain  duties  of  home,  and  the  responsi- 
bilities of  social  life,  and  the  demands  of  charity, 
that  makes  both  men  and  women  "  impractica- 
bles  "  and  "  impossibles,"  and  makes  life  a  sort 
of    useless,    monastic,    transcendental    existence. 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  277 

Mrs.  Russell,  the  brilliant  daughter  of  Father 
Taylor  of  Boston,  described  the  transcendentalists, 
who  separated  themselves  in  the  little  select,  lit- 
erary Brook.  Farm  experiment,  as  "  a  race,  who 
dove  into  the  infinite,  soared  into  the  illimitable, 
and  never  paid  cash."  An  education  which  takes 
one's  feet  out  of  the  ordinary  paths  of  life,  and 
prevents  one  from  dealing  in  its  customary  cur- 
rency and  meeting  its  common  obligations,  has  no 
justification  for  its  existence  in  this  work-a-day 
world  of  ours.  President  Henry  Churchill  King 
of  Oberlin  College  has  wisely  said,  "  Just  this, 
then,  is  the  function  of  the  college,  to  teach  in  the 
broadest  way  the  fine  art  of  living,  to  give  the  best 
preparation  that  organized  education  can  give,  for 
entering  wisely  and  unselfishly  into  the  complex 
relations  of  life,  and  for  furthering  unselfishly 
and  efficiently  social  progress." 

A  second  peril  to  which  we  are  exposed  at  the 
present  time,  and  it  may  be  called  the  great  edu- 
cational peril  of  two  continents,  is  that  of  exalting 
the  practical  side  of  education  in  such  a  way  as  to 
belittle  the  cultural  and  spiritual  side,  to  determine 
the  character  of  education  and  measure  its  value 
by  its  ability  to  coin  itself  into  material  possessions, 
and  minister  to  the  bustling,  noisy  activities  of  our 
age,  forgetting  that  refinement,  taste,  beauty  and 
strength  of  character  are  the  choicest  possessions 


278     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

of  the  soul,  and  the  richest  fruits  of  liberal  culture; 
Indeed,  without  which  there  is  no  liberal  culture. 

Professor  Huxley's  definition  of  "  a  liberal  edu- 
cation," expressed  in  what  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  calls 
*'  a  magnificent  sentence,"  is  as  follows:  "That 
man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education  who  has 
been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is  the  ready 
servant  of  the  will,  and  does  with  ease  and  pleas- 
ure all  the  work  that  as  a  mechanism  it  is  capable 
of;  whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic  engine, 
with  all  its  parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in  smooth 
v/orking  order;  ready,  like  a  steam-engine,  to  be 
turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  gossamers 
as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind;  whose 
mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the  great  and 
fundamental  truths  of  nature  and  the  laws  of  her 
operations ;  one,  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of 
life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to 
come  to  heel  by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a 
tender  conscience;  who  has  learned  to  love  all 
beauty,  whether  of  nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all 
vileness,  and  to  respect  others  as  himself.  Such 
an  one  and  no  other,  I  conceive,  has  had  a  liberal 
education." 

Arthur  C.  Benson  in  his  able  and  discriminating 
"  Life  of  Walter  Pater,"  accounts  for  Pater's  lack 
of  appreciation  at  Oxford,  his  Alma  Mater,  and 
the  University,  in  which  most  of  his  life  was  spent, 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  279 

in  this  way,  "  Moreover  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the 
air  of  the  Universities  is  not  at  the  present  mo- 
ment favorable  to  the  pursuit  of  Belles  lettres  and 
artistic  philosophies.  1  he  praise  of  academical 
circles  is  reserved  at  the  present  time  for  people 
of  brisk,  bursarial  and  business  qualifications,  for 
men  of  high  technical  accomplishment,  for  exact 
researchers,  for  effective  teachers  of  prescribed 
subjects,  for  men  of  acute  and  practical  minds, 
rather  than  for  men  of  imaginative  qualities. 
This  is  the  natural  price  that  must  be  paid  for  the 
(so-called)  increased  efficiency  of  our  Universi- 
ties, though  it  may  be  regretted  that  they  main- 
tain so  slight  a  hold  upon  the  literary  influence  of 
the  day.  The  whole  atmosphere  is,  in  fact, 
sternly  critical,  and  the  only  work  which  is  em- 
phatically recognized  and  approved,  is  the  work 
which  makes  definite  and  unquestionable  additions 
to  the  progress  of  exact  sciences."  And  Ferris 
Greenslet  in  his  appreciation  of  the  same  English 
scholar,  says,  "  This  is  the  sum  of  Pater's  Cy- 
renaic  philosophy  of  life.  Its  plea  was  for  a  sys- 
tem of  morals  as  living  and  flexible  as  life  itself, 
and  for  a  recognition  of  the  importance  of  "  be- 
ing "  as  well  as  "  doing."  Such  considerations 
have  perennial  value,  but  especial  significance  in 
an  age  like  ours,  when  it  is  so   fatally  easy  to 


28o     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

glorify  over  much  great  aggregations  of  horse- 
power, men  of  high  voltage,  and  the  efficient  life." 

This  language  portrays  to  us  most  strikingly 
the  tendencies  in  the  mother  country.  In  like 
manner  President  Thwing,  deploring  the  sadly  di- 
minished effect  of  the  forces  of  the  American  Uni- 
versity on  American  literature  in  these  recent 
decades,  declares,  "  The  reason  lies  in  the  ab- 
sorption of  men  in  things  material.  In  the  former 
age  men  gave  themselves  to  ideas;  they  now  give 
themselves  to  things.  The  reason  is  that  this  is 
an  age  of  materialism;  it  is  the  time  of  the  reign 
of  the  exterior  senses.  The  voice  of  the  imag- 
ination is  hushed.  The  altar  fires  of  the  creative 
imagination  are  burned  out,  and  in  their  place  are 
the  fires  of  the  steamship  boiler  and  of  the  mogul 
locomotive." 

An  Eastern  college  which  has  had  an  honored 
history  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  as  a  clas- 
sical school,  laying  special  emphasis  upon  the  hu- 
manities, graduated  at  a  recent  commencement 
thirty-five  men  with  the  following  degrees.  Three 
received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  three  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Philosophy,  two  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science,  and  twenty-seven 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Engineering.  This  is 
an  extreme  case ;  but  it  is  symptomatic. 

Professor  Miinsterberg  declares,  "  There  are 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  281 

too  many  who  fancy  that  everything  which  is  not 
directly  useful  for  the  vocational  technique  is  a 
waste  of  time  and  energy.  They  have  stuffed  our 
colleges  with  practical  subjects,  and  have  allowed 
far-reaching  choice  of  courses  in  the  high  schools 
under  the  one  point  of  view  that  only  that  which 
is  directly  applicable  to  the  future  trade  can  be 
worth  while.  If  this  tendency  were  to  win  the 
day,  the  life  work  would  be  built  up  on  thinner 
and  thinner  foundations  of  real  culture,  and  our 
society  would  be  more  and  more  threatened  by 
uneducated  experts.  The  whole  cultural  level  of 
our  community  would  sink,  .  .  .  the  value  of  this 
whole  fabric  and  the  worthiness  of  our  social  life 
would  rapidly  diminish." 

A  sad  day  will  it  be  for  our  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, when  the  spiritual  is  crowded  out  by  the 
material,  when  the  humanities  are  driven  to  the 
wall  by  the  so-called  practical  studies,  when  re- 
finement and  culture  are  at  a  discount  and  busi- 
ness efficiency  at  a  premium,  when  things  are  of 
more  value  than  high  ideals  and  noble  aspirations, 
when  the  noise  of  machinery  and  the  shouts  of 
the  athletic  field  put  an  end  to  "  the  still  air  of 
delightful  studies,"  when  physical  strength  counts 
for  more  than  moral  strength  and  intellectual  at- 
tainment, when  the  popular  applause  is  given  not 
to   the   successful   student  but   to   the   successful 


282     THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

athlete,  when  the  colleges  are  no  longer  able  to 
produce  Longfellows,  and  Hawthornes,  and 
Lowells,  and  John  Hays,  because  they  have  lost 
the  mold;  In  a  word,  when  they  cease  to  be  pre- 
eminently the  homes  of  elegant  culture.  If  that 
day  should  ever  come,  which  may  God  forbid, 
then  we  shall  look  to  the  colleges  for  young  women 
to  preserve  the  lofty  aims,  the  high  spiritual  ideals, 
the  garnered  and  priceless  results  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation. 

In  the  University  of  Minnesota  from  the  gradu- 
ates of  1 910  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  whose 
members  are  elected  on  the  basis  of  scholarly  at- 
tainments and  literary  proficiency,  elected  to  mem- 
bership thirteen  women  and  four  men.  President 
Tucker  of  Dartmouth  College,  speaking  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  said:  "The  curator  took 
me  from  alcove  to  alcove,  and  uncovered  first  the 
manuscript  of  Lord  Bacon's  Novum  Organum, 
and  in  turn,  the  manuscript  of  Milton's  Paradise 
Lost,  the  manuscript  of  Newton's  Principia,  a 
canto  of  Byron's  Childe  Harold,  Tennyson's 
In  Memoriam  and  Thackeray's  Henry  Esmond, 
all  the  product  of  One  College  in  one  University," 
and  then  he  added,  "  England  may  multiply  her 
wealth,  and  increase  her  navy  and  expand  her  em- 
pire, and  she  will  still  live  more  surely  in  the  names 
which    will    outlast    her    power."     Ambassador 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  283 

James  Bryce,  in  his  admirable  volume  on  South 
America,  declares  "  The  world  to-day  is  ruled 
by  physical  science  and  business."  And  again  he 
says  in  the  same  volume,  "  There  is  a  sense  in 
which  Shakespeare  is  a  greater  glory  to  England 
than  the  Empire  of  India.  Homer  and  Virgil, 
Plato  and  Tacitus  are  a  gift  made  by  the  ancient 
world  to  all  the  ages,  more  precious,  because  more 
enduring,  than  any  achievements  in  war,  or  gov- 
ernment, or  commerce." 

This  distinguished  scholar  and  publicist  in  a 
commencement  address  at  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, uttered  a  much  needed  word  of  caution 
against  the  all-absorbing  pursuit  of  so-called  prac- 
tical studies.  "  Whatever  a  nation  achieves,  what- 
ever a  university  achieves,  is  the  result  of  patient 
observation,  close  reasoning,  and,  let  me  add,  of 
the  love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake;  for  the 
man  who  is  bent  only  on  finding  what  is  primarily 
profitable  will  miss  many  a  path  at  the  end  of 
Avhich  there  stands  the  figure  of  Truth,  with  all 
the  rewards  she  has  to  bestow.  Just  as  any  na- 
tion which  should  force  its  children  to  narrow 
their  energies  to  purely  gainful  aims,  would  soon 
fall  behind  its  competitors,  and  see  its  intellectual 
life  fade  and  wither,  so  any  university  which  sac- 
rificed its  teaching  of  the  theory  of  science  to  the 
teaching  of  the  practical  applications  of  science 


284    THINKING  GOD'S  THOUGHTS 

would  be  unworthy  of  its  high  calling,  and  would 
handle  ev^en  the  practical  part  of  its  work  less 
effectively.  The  loss  of  a  high  ideal  means  the 
loss  of  aspiration,  of  faith,  of  vital  force." 

Professor  Willcox  of  Cornell  University,  rec- 
ognizing the  inappropriateness  of  old  definitions 
to  modern  conditions,  says,  "  The  most  vital  need 
of  college  education  throughout  America  is  the 
formulation  and  application  of  some  definition  of 
liberal  education  which  will  apply  to  new  condi- 
tions," which  virtually  means  some  definition  which 
will  deceive  us  into  the  belief  that  the  new  educa- 
tion contains  all  the  elements  of  broadening  cul- 
ture, and  liberal  training,  and  spiritual  refinement 
possessed  by  the  old.  New  definitions  will  not 
alter  the  nature  of  things,  or  endow  with  spiritual 
life  that  which  is  of  the  earth  earthy. 

"  In  the  world  but  not  of  it "  should  be  as  true 
of  culture  as  of  religion.  "  In  it  "  to  elevate, 
purify  and  ennoble  its  life,  to  exalt  and  spiritualize 
its  aims,  and  inspire  it  with  the  love  of  worthy 
objects  of  human  pursuit;  but  "not  of  it,"  unin- 
fluenced by  its  low  and  debasing  ideals,  free  from 
its  bondage  to  the  material  and  the  sensual,  and 
superior  to  its  vulgar  pleasures  and  its  sordid  and 
perishable  gains. 

In  .conclusion,  I  desire  to  say  that  continued  in- 
tellectual progress  and  moral  improvement  should 


MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD  285 

be  the  distinct  and  unweakening  purpose  of  life. 
Seminaries  and  colleges  can  at  best  only  lay  the 
foundations  of  an  education.  All  life  must  be 
building  the  superstructure.  The  roof  of  our 
schoolhouse  is  the  broad  heavens  above  us,  and 
the  whole  system  of  nature  and  Providence,  of 
moral  government  and  divine  grace  revealed  in 
Jesus  Christ,  under  which  we  live,  is  an  educa- 
tional system.  He  who  ceases  to  learn  and  to 
grow,  is  unworthy  to  live,  and  to  have  the  vast 
opportunities  of  life.  Heaven  is  the  home  of 
successful  and  victorious  students,  "  disciples," 
that  is,  learners,  the  New  Testament  calls  them, 
who  have  diligently  and  faithfully  learned  the 
truths  of  God  in  nature,  in  philosophy,  in  human 
experience  and  in  divine  Revelation,  and  felt  their 
quickening  and  expanding,  purifying  and  maturing 
influence  on  their  souls.  The  dying  Goethe  is  said 
to  have  asked  for  more  light.  Light,  knowledge, 
truth,  which  may  be  converted  into  faith,  into 
character,  into  service,  into  victory,  into  eternal 
possessions,  this  should  be  the  perpetual  cry  of 
every  immortal  spirit,  made  in  the  image  of  God. 


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